Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6818, 24 September 1883, Page 4

It is with reluctance'.we direct, unfavour-' ■able attention to private, renterprise, ,but ■ when it involves grave public "evils, the duty becomes, imperative. ,; The Surrey Hills estate is about to ,be ,put..up^to ' public competition} ' and., we are. only ; echoing the very.strong public feeling of the city when we'.utter a "vehement protest against the evil that seems'inte'ndedto be perpetrated, on the public health and weir fare. A glance at the, plari of subdivision shows a state.of things that happily has not hitherto found'- a' parallel .in" tho' colony.. An area , of half .the size .of'•'the old city of Auckland,'iramddiately'-ad joining'.tho.ci'ty boundary, has-been, cut up .for sale as building allotments,- fully one-half of the. streets' being about '■ sixteen-- feet in ■width. ; They may: bo c'alleil.rights-of-, • way," or .they- may "be called lanes, or they may be called passages, or by any other form of nomenclature. that any person may. desire. But streets they are and streets'they will be;"to" the sanitary, social, and, moral pollution of the public for all time,- if no steps' can bo tuken to prevent them.. Indeed, we cannot conceive how:'any persons knowing the spirit , of .public legislation on'■■ thfs, .subject, and knowing the strength of 'the- public objection.to these abominations, 7 and above all, knowinghow deleterious"these things must be to tho public health, could identify ; themselves with such an al-