UNTIDY STREETS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1944, Page 6

UNTIDY STREETS

THE LABOUR PROBLEM

Wellington presented a very unkempt appearance today after the rain following the long, dry, windy spell. Wisps of dry grass and scraps of paper and rag littered the gutters, causing small blockages arid .drawing attention to the massed debris. There is, it is true, a general disreputability about most towns just on the point of resuming the main business of life after the holiday season, but in Wellington there is probably a greater shortage of .labour than elsewhere. A large proportion of the labour that normally would be available for cleaning up is not free for such work now. Earthquake repairs—still not completed and not likely to be so for some time —and the fact that nearly 50 per cent, of employees are absent, either on holidays, or through sickness, accident, etc., have reduced the labour supply to the point where only the most necessary jobs can still be carried on. The shortage in the cleansing and rubbish removal staff is such that the public are asked by the corporation to assist all they can by burning or burying rubbish. In these circumstances work, such as the filling in of E.P.S. trenches, where this still remains to be done, and the demolition of air raid shelters, will probably be amongst the last to receive attention. The condition of the tramway tracks, although they caused some concern from their state of disrepair, did not draw as much attention from pedestrians during the drought as they did today, when in many -places partially supported rails squelched protestingly as trams passed over them, throwing sheets of muddy water on stockings, trousers, and shoes.