THE CONDITION OF WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11870, 20 April 1899, Page 6

THE CONDITION OF WELLINGTON.

THE MAYOR’S SCHEME

* DEALING! WITH THE SLUMS. [From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, April 18. I am informed on good authority that Mr Blair, the Mayor of Wellington, is about to lay before the City Council a series of important proposals, which are worthy of attention by other New Zealand boroughs. Hitherto the work of street repairing, drainage and improvements generally has been carried out in a makeshift, piecemeal fashion, travelling along obsolete grooves, and producing not only extravagant outlay, but inefficiency and the necessity for perpetual patching, the engineer has been dominated, by cliques in the Council, which, in turn, have been manipulated by cliques of ratepayers. It is believed, that Mr Blair proposes to sweep away the last vestiges of this unsatisfactory condition of things, and to reorganise the whole system upon a sound, efficient and uniform basis, lor example, there are numerous thoroughfares in Wellington where only half the footpatn is flagged. To complete this throughout would-involve an expenditure beyond the present resources of the borough. It is, therefore, proposed to utilise the flagstones from these' incomplete footways in finishing the more important streets, such as Lambton Quay (which ought, by the way, to be called in future LaJnbton Crescent, being no longer a quay), Willis ■ and_ Manners Streets, and to substitute asphalt on the full width of the footways mow only halt formed. ■ Another proposal is to substatute contract work for day labour on the municipal works, employing the C ol^ ll labourers, on the rougher worV """ it is believed a large saving would accnie. It is said that Wellington enjoys the unenviable notoriety of excemng every other city in the colony m the density and insanitary condition of its slums.- In some of the main thoroughfares the eye of the spectator is offended by the sight oi antiquated shanties, dating back o pi i ages. Owing ■either to the greed of the landlords (mostly absentees) or influence brought to bear upon the Council from outside, the latter body evinces as much tender regard for the preservation ot these unsightly evesores and fever beds as if they were some rare monuments of classic times or the memorials of some great and memorable events in the history of the city. .Last session, it will be, remembered, the slum owners vainly sought to induce Parliament to recognise ! by special Act the existence of these noisome lanes, in order to arrest the march of municipal improvement, which has'no misplaced reverence for rottenness and decay. The question of demolishing the slums is now under consideration by a special commit.teee o the Council, known as ‘ The Widening Committee.” Thirty-six rotting shanties huddled together in a slum called Cambridge Road have been condemned by the city medical officer, Dr Martin, but the owners and agents are making a desperate fight to prolong the existence of these plague spots' and haunts of vice, crammed with rabbit hutches, each bringing in a rental of 8s a week. One of the most active opponents of reform js the representative of an absentee, ana a member of the City Council. The most effective method of dealing with such scandals as that of the young girls recently found by the police in a filthy Chinese den would be to punish by heavy fine or imprisonment the owners ,of these hovels or their agents. In maiiy. cases the former are absentees, living in'"London, who never trouble themselves as to their tenants so long as the last penny of rent can be squeezed out. In other cases the owners are well known residents,, who would be shocked at any interference with the sacred rights of property.