THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1874.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3996, 2 September 1874, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1874.

The progress made in Auckland in tlie style, extent, and variety of the buildings devoted to commerce is a matter for congratulation, and attracts the attention of every visitor,_ especially if he come from any of tlie| minor towns of the old country of even larger population. Market houses, railway stations, fine hotels, and large and well-built warehouses are before him in different directions. But when, turning from these to our public buildings, or at least to those not devoted to mere revenue purposes, he must be equally struck with the poverty of the institutions which they represent. The Post-office and the Supreme Court are creditable buildings, and Government House is sure not to pass unnoticed. The Lunatic Asylum is a fine though unfinished edifice, but the Hospital, the Schools, the Museum, and that miserable substitute for a public library, the Mechanics' Institute, are a standing disgrace to the flourishing and prosperous town they are allowed to disfigure.

Tlie Hospital stands 011 a magnificent and prominent site, well worthy a better and more commodious building. A T ot that we should propose an outlay at all like that which was incurred for the Lunatic Asylum. A less pretentious style would be more suitable, and we believe that the best models are now considered in Europe to be simple clusters of detached wards admitting air and light on every side. Such a building need not be expensive, while offering comforts and conveniences which could not be obtained in the present structure. The schools in town are an absolute disgrace to the community so far as the buildings are concerned. They are none of them public property, but only hired from the religious bodies by whom they were built, and are therefore of course much too small for present purposes. Happily they are wooden erections, and are not too airtight or they might be as unwholesome as they are unsightly and unsuitable for any large number of children. It is the absence of public school buildings that strikes the stranger more particularly on his visit to our city. If he come from any of the Southern towns inferior to us in population or in wealth, he finds us immeasurably behind them in this respect If he come from any of the smallesi country towns or the smallest provinces he finds that their school buildings do not compare unfavorably with those provided for our children. In Dunedin and in Chnstchurch the public schools are anion" the best and most prominent buildings' In the former city there are four handsome brick buildings, one in each quarter of the town, while the High School and the University are large and costly structures The worst of the country schools in those provinces are equal to the best of those which, we have to show in our chief city Our Grammar School, provided with aii excellent staff of masters, is housed in an ugly stone barrack, and even of that it only has the temporary use. Our common schools are without play-grounds gymnasiums, or any of the other appliances considered indispensable in well-ordered communities where the training and education of the children are regarded as matters of primary necessity. Of the Museum the less we say the better. A valuable collection, which ought to have gieat educational uses, is hidden away in a building dilapidated, unattractive and mean in the extreme. The Mechanics' Institute, our sole preteiv.c to a public library, is hidden away in a back street is nnserably supplied with books and avowedly relying only on an excellent supply of periodicals and newspapers for support. Tlie country Libraries are poorlv supplied by paltry and inadequate grants trom the provincial revenue. Turn in what direction we may, the condition of the province in these respects is discreditable and calculated to lower its character and prestige. The buildings which were suitable twenty years ago are in every respect inadequate now. While population and commerce have wonderfully increased, and while our Customs revenue has swelled to nearly a quarter of a miliion yearly while buildings of a highly ornamental and creditable character have arisen 111 every direction for purposes 0 f commerce, we are standing still in the provision of those which adorn a country lead to cultivated minds and refined tastes' and render a community proud of the place to which they belong. It is neither right nor healthy that anv people should remain stolidly satisfied with such a condition, and the best men among us might well devote their energies to find a remedy. In other places the public revenues or the endowments from public lands have been used to provide fitting structures. Unfortunately for Auckland, its land endowments have not been extensive nor valuable while those which might have been made most useful are frittered away by Improvement Commissioners and other irresponsible and fanciful creations. That magnificent endowment of 00 acres in

the centre of the city seems now in a fair way to be useless for all practical purposes for the next half a century— except it be to serve as a, warning against entrusting great powers to bodies not directly responsible to the people, and as a monument of the. folly of which such bodies can be guilty. Another splendid endowment —the Supreme Court site— stands a tolerably good chance of being similarly frittered away, .if the fate of the Improvemement Commissioners be not kept in mind as illustrating the futility of confounding purposes and objects that cannot be made to accord with each other. The reversionary interest in both these reserves was to have been in the Education Board, but it would be far better to appropriate them entirely to one purpose than to hold out delusive hopes which only tend to prevent proper exertion being made for the provision of suitable schooland other buildings. Seeing then that our libraries, museum, and schools have to little to expect from endowments, the only other source is the revenue. At present this revenue is entirely absorbed by the General Government, as we are all aware, hut it is becoming a matter of vital importance that some portion should be returned to the province for such purposes as we have indicated. We cannot with safety or credit go on as we are, and if we would avoid _ becoming a byword, the public attention must be turned to these questions. There is the broad fact 'that our buildings for educational and other public purposes are a standing disgrace. There is the other broad fact that our only hope of a remedy is to insist on such a reform of the financial system of the colony that we, who are so heavily taxed and who contribute so largely, may be supplied with the comparatively small sum that would enable us to keep the city and the province in these respects, at least on an equality with the rest of the cities and provinces of the colony. It cannot be endured much longer that this province should be robbed of its entire means of social progress, while the affairs of the colony are conducted in so princely a style and its revenues spent with so lavish a hand, under the auspices of an Assembly, the great mass oi whose constituencies are saved from feeling the pressure by the land fund on which they live.

Dwellers in what has been termed the "fair city of Auckland" will hardly be prepared to read, without a shudder, an official report a copy of which is now lying before us. In a long, narrow thoroughfare not more than ten feet wide, leading out of Chan-cery-atreet, and known as Bacon's- lane, are living near upon a hundred men, women, and children. Bacon's-lane doesnot appear to have been known to the missionary, the clergyman, the schoolmaster, or the pliiianthroprst. Bacon's-lane comes before us with its miserable occupants and filthy, unwholesome surroundings, in the shape of a report from such a very commonplace personage as an Inspector of Nuisances.

Bacon's-lane, as we have stated, leads from Chancery-street, which again leads out of another narrow, ill-drained, foul, inhabited thoroughfare. What some of the by-alleys leading out of Drury-lane from High Holbom, or from the Seven Dials was to London, Chancery-lane is to Auckland. In London such sinks have been razed to the ground and the locality purified ; but Chancerylane and JBacon's-lane and tlic crooked ways leading thereto and therefrom, are risited by the tax collector, and are under cognisance of the City Municipal authorities. We quote from what the Inspector of Nuisances says of Bacon's-lane. The first tenement he visits consists of one room, with about half a dozen Maoris, male and female, all, h/im/ toqether ; the house horridly dirty, and' 110 'access to a drain, ihe second lias two rooms, one of them occupied by a man ; dirty ; 110 access to a drain. The third, two rooms, occupied by an old wi»man, a young woman, and two children ; dirty ; no access to a drain. The fourth, two rooms, occupied by a man, his wife, and six children ; dirty, and ill a dilapidated condition : 110 access to a drain. We go 110 further. In the few cases we have cited we tliink sufficient has been told to allow the inhabitants of Auckland to know that in the very heart of a city which claims to be the leading capital of New Zealand there is a reeking Alsatia, which there has been 110 effort to remove. If we desire to find out the haunts of crime we have only to look to such places as we have described to find them.

Here are small tenements consisting of one or two rooms, without ventilation, without drainage, and without out-oflices, in a lane no more than ten feet wide, the brick portions of the dwellings festering in a foul soil, and covered with dank green mould. And yet it will fall upon us with something like a surprise, should an official report come to hand notifying that cases of typhus and typhoid fever are common in our midst.

We have not yet done with the inquisition made by the Inspector of Nuisances. After instancing the kind of houses and the occupants, which lie in the most unpleasant and unwholesome performance of his duties visited, lie goes on to say, "1 specially dosire to report that this is a disreputable neighbourhood. The oll'ensive smell which, prevades the locality is an abomination. The greater portion of the occupiers are filthy and filthily clad. The houses are not lit to live in, being dilapidated and dirty." Further reading of the report shews that a drain requires constructing down the centre of the lane, as a considerable portion of the drainage from Barrack Hill runs through it into Chancery-lane, which the Inspector describes as almost impassable. In Bacon's-lane there is an "irregular open drain (dirty), which now runs down the centre, and receives all the slops and filth." To keep this lane clean, the report states, would require the services of the city labourers daily. The concluding portion of the Inspector's report is entitled to all attention. If what it recommends cannot be accomplished, he would, he goes on to say, like to see the whole of the houses pulled down and the abomination cleared out, as it will require something being done beforo the hot weather sets in."

Here, then, is something which demands the interference of the city authorities. Their powers, if not very large, are at least all sufiicient to remove the evil complained of, and which, speaking from what has come uncle: our own personal notice, is in no way exaggerated., If the Council are unable to provide: a remedy, let them unite with the Board of Health, when there will be found no difficulty in dealing with such a subject as " Bacon's-lane," which is simply a reflection upon and disgrace to the city.

Mr. Murray, in his speech in the Assembly upon the provincial changes proposed to be made under the resolutions of the Premier, took occasion to say lie considered that the system of government in New. Zealand was productive of very serious consequences. It was admitted on all hands that this was one of the most over-governed colonies in the world. The hon. member then instanced the case of India. "I see by Dr. Norman , s that the whole civil service of India amounted to 3,300; and, according

to the most recent census of thi3 Indian Empire, the population is estimated, at 250,000,000. I have taken some ~ liitle trouble in calculating the civil service of this colony, and I find that the General Government civil service amounts to 2,'200, and I think, including the .frovincial Government services, the number would not be less than $,000. Thus, we have nearly as many civil servants for governing a colony of 300,000 people, with no foreign enemy to contend against, as is required to govern India, with a population of almost as many millions. These are facts which either speak very favourably of the civil service of India—and I think you can scarcely say too much in favour of that service—or speak very unfavourably of the civil service of this colony. We must therefore conclude that we are dreadfully over-officialed, and that our departments are ruinously numerous and complicated." Mr. Murray overlooks the fact that the Government of India does not require for its maintenance the suppportand interest which the members of the civil service give to that of this, and not only this but, although in a lesser degree, that of the Governments of all the Australian colonies.

| Coming events, it has been said, cast their shadows before. Whether Mr. Vogel fears for the "situation," or whether the late arduous session has exhausted his energies and undermined his health that he should desire to retire from the Premiership, our special correspondent's! telegram, received last night from Wellington, does not say; | but it distinctly states that Mr. Vogel has offered to resign the Premiership to Mr. Stafford, and that that gentleman has positively declined bo accept either the honor or I the responsibility. Mr. Vogel desires to go to England. To this Mr. Stafford raises an objection. He said the financial difficulties for which Mr. Vogel must hold himself responsible were looming, and that the duty of the Premier was to stay and face them out. Mr. Stafford will be considered as having done quite right in refusing to take command of the State ship. Mr. Vogel has marked down the course, and knowing the intricacies of the channels he has to navigate his craft through, it v.-ill be an act of sheer political cowardice if he throws up his command before he has steered his vessel into port. Mr. Vogel lias got to stand or fall by his policy, and the statesman who would relieve the Premier of bis responsibility at the present juncture of affairs, could only do so to gratify a vaulting ambition. It is not likely he would possess the confidence of the electors of the colony. Such a man Mr. Stafford is not.

j Mr. Shtsehax, in his speech upon the proposed provincial changes, gives the following as one of the reasons for the introduction of them. "I believe," said Mr. Sheehan, " the changes have arisen out of a quarrel between the colony and the province of Wellington, and a good deal of it may rven be attributed to the Premier's health. This may be regarded as a rather startling reason to give, but nevertheless there is some truth in it. We do not know what may follow if we are to retain personal government as we have it now. It seems to me that the time is coming when the. colony will be so bound up in the health of the Premier, that it will hear with great alarm that the Premier has corns, because, as things now stand, that very circumstance will likely give rise to irritating discussions in this liouse. I oppose the resolution, also, on the ground that this change has not been asked for by the people of the colony."

The province of Wellington, despite of its large loans, its many money grants, antl the other aids it has obtained through the unceasing efforts of the "Sturdy Beggar,"is declared to be financially moribund. The Tribune, morning journal, published ill the Empire City, recommends that the Provincial Council, in the face of impending con stitutiorial changes, and to prevent a hitch in the public business, should be convened. It says the Government is without money, and that; in consequence the operations of the Education Board have been brought to a standstill through the non-payment of the grant voted it. There is a large over-draft at the bank, which will be barely covered even should Mr. Douglass' offer for a larger bleck of land be accepted. The difficulties of the position, the Tribune goes on to say, are intolerable. But then Wellington has never been any better, and still survives.