FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 17

FIFTY YEARS AGO

ITEMS FROM THE "POST"

OVERCROWDING IN CITY

: ''The Mayor has raised an important question in regard to the over-crowd-ing of small dwelling-houses in certain, localities, and We are glad to find that the Gity Council possesses the power to improve," remarks "The Post" of this date fifty years ago. "There are alleys in Wellington where wretched little hovels are crowded together without the slightest regard for health, cojnfort, or even decency. Speculators acquire a small area of land, and forthwith proceed to erect as many little two-roomed dens as can possibly be placed on the ground, and this without any provision being made for proper drainage, or for sanitary purposes of any kind. Of course these dens attract only the worst and poorest classes of the community, and usually afford shelter for all kinds of vice and immorality and facilities for the development and rapid propagation of disease. There are several localities of this kind in the city, and as they prove profitable to landlords y/ho are not over particular in the choice of their tenants,, the tendency is for such places to become more numerous. The City Council will be doing good service if it checks the .development of this tendency, and insists that wherever new buildings intended for human habitation are erected, proper space for yards and offices shall be left, and due precaution taken for the preservation of k public health, as well as that of the occupiers of the buildings. The regulation of common lodging-houses is another subject to which the Council should turn its attention. There are many buildings occupied in this way in Wellington which are utterly unsuited for the purpose. Some of them would prove veritable man traps in case of fire. Escape would be almost impossible from them, and a serious loss of life would certainly attend any fire in them. Many such tenements are altogether deficient in sanitary arrangements, and form . fit tiotbeds for the development of germs of serious disease. Overcrowding in dormitories is also very common in the very worst class of houses. The Council, we believe, has power to license lodginghouses and to make regulations as to their conduct. This power it should exercise without delay. It is just as necessary that the -common lodginghouses should be licensed, inspected, and regulated, as that the ordinary hotels should be so treated. Provision is required to be made for proper ventilation, for the adoption of sufficient precautions against fire, for the supply of suitable means of escape in case of fire, and for preventing over-crowd-ing in sleeping rooms. A small licence fee should be charged, and an inspector appointed to see that the conditions of the licence are duly fulfilled. Such regulations would prove a boon to the large class of the community who uses cheap lodging-houses, and would also promote the public safety by lessening the risk of fire, as well A as tending to the conservation of public health." FOOTBALL. "New Zealand with some reason prides itself on its : football playing. It is decidedly in advance of Australia in this branch of athletic sport, and within New Zealand Wellington is well able to hold its own with all competitors. Its football successes have in the past atoned for its cricket disasters. The time is coming, however, when our footballers will have to encounter doughty foes, in the shape of a team of English players. The cables tell us that there has been no difficulty in getting up a team of firstclass Rugby players to make a tour of the colonies, and we are sure that their intended visit to this city will be looked forward to with great interest by a very large section of the public. Football is, notwithstanding its roughness, undoubtedly popular in Wellington, and it will be a sight vorth seeing to witness our best men in contest with a picked English team. If the proposed match betweer a combined Maori and half-castt team and 'he English players can also be arranged to take place here, it will be an event of much interest. -Whether the English team plays here at all, however, depends, not upon the local association, but upon the decision of the City Council in regard to allowing the Basin Reserve to be used for the contemplated matches." GORSE NUISANCE. "We have frequently called attention in our columns to the manner in Which gorse is permitted to spread over the town belt reserve. The matter is one which deserves the prompt attention of the authorities. All along the side of Mount Victoria, and in many other places as well, great fields of gorse are growing up, and if not speedily removed they will constitute a serious menace to the city. Already there have been one or two alarms from gorse fires. We do not know whether the town belt leases contain any provision compelling the tenants to keep down the gorse. If they do, then these provisions should be strictly enforced. If they do not, then the City Council itself should undertake the work. A large portion of the town belt will soon be worse ,than useless, if something is not soon done, and the work is essentially one in which a stitch in time will save nine." THE CIVIL SERVICE. "The present -ondition of the Civil Service of Ne\ Zealand is a most pitiable one. No man in it knows what his fate is to be. All are living in hourly dread From one end of the colony to the other no employee of ■:. the Government op^ns any official communication Lorn headquarters but 'i with fear and trembling, lest it con- I tains notice of dismissal. At headquar- ; : : : ters the officials are like prisoners ' awaiting sentence. No on v feels secure in his position, and consequently no one takes any interest in his work There is plenty of eye service, any amount of intrifiuing, earwigging, and wire pulling, but no esprit de corps. Every man is for himself, and every man imagines he sees, not in every bush an officer, but in every fellow- ■ officer a conspirator endeavouring to undermine him in order to make his i own position, if possible, secure. All t are trying to make themselves right for the day when from the Department one shall be taken and the other left. In fact, the terror and uncertainty ; which now hangs over the Civil Service is utterly demoralising that body, collectively and individually. : Officers are unable to make the slight- j est arrangement as to the future, f They are afraid to take a house for < a year even, because in a month they f may .be left unable to pay the rent, 1 and be added to the army ol the un- ' employed. The condition of the pub- % lie servants of this colony is indeed, ■ as we have said, a pitiable one at the j present moment, and they are being 1 treated in a very crueJ anri unfair | way.. The Ministry is responsible, M I Tint for the existence, certainly for I the continuance of this state ol affairs. ™ and the sooner the promises of reorganisation are put into effect the better it will be for the country."