THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1888.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8526, 5 November 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1888.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established IS id. and the Hew Zealander.

Eollowiko up the subject which we opened in our last issue—the improvement required in the sanitary condition of Wellington—we have something to say to-day with regard to the manner in which a considerable portion of this city has been built, and is being built, in relation to sanitary considerations. We have remarked before on the existence already of several very bad “rookeries ” in our midst, and on the perceptible tendency of their multiplication. This is a matter to which the early attention of the City Council will have to be directed. Even at this early stage of the city’s history certain portions of itsareaarepopulated far more densely than is either desirable or safe. In fact, there are several “slums” of a very pronounced description, and this ought not to be in such a young city. But the evil was bound to come, and is- bound to increase in the absence of adequate restrictive provisions. .It is quite na tural that the owners of building sites should be anxious to make the most, of them. There are some localities in which houses of the larger and more expensive order would not readily find tenants because those neighbourhoods are not popular among the class of people that alone would be likely $0 take such houses. In those localities speculators usually crowd together residences of, a humbler type, trusting to make up for the smaller rental per house by the large number of houses and tenants. Notoriously in some instances these houses are constructed on wholly insanitary principles. They are runup as “ cheaply and nastily ” as possible. The looms are small and low. Ventilation is conspicuous by its absence. So are various conveniences which ought, now-a-days, to form a compulsory part of every house’s equipment for human habitation, especially a continuous 4 water supply and, a bath. Such conveniences as are provided are often defective 1 in vital points, so as to constitute a grave peril to the inmates of the houses The garden, or back yard space, is too small for clothes’ drying to be practicable, excepting in limited instalments. The receptacles for refuse, if any exist, are so inadequate and ill-de-signed, as= to involve risk to health. A promiscuous mingling of sexes is said to be a common and objectionable feature in some ot those over-crowded shanties, and immorality is consequently fostered. Sanitary laws, cleanliness and decency, are, in short, set at defiance.

But it is not only in the inferior class of houses that serious shortcomings are to be discovered. Many houses of the better class are glaringly and even perilously defective, although, as a rule, there is-not so reckless and undisguised a disregard of all considerations, save that of running up the cheapest building for which rent can be obtained, as there is in the poorer class of residences. There is at least an attempt to keep up appearances. But some very nice-looking houses are veritable “ whited sepulchres.” g Too often we find bathrooms absent, ventilation deficient, sanitary conveniences so defective as to be dangerous ; and houses packed much too closely together, or at all events with too little ground adjacent. Now and then the enterprising builder or speculator, who ignores the possibility of his tenants requiring any garden or yard beyond an enclosure so small as to render the swinging of a cat therein an act of gross cruelty, if not of impossibility, receives a wholesome lesson as to the unwisdom of bis policy. We know of cases in which houses, otherwise entirely desirable, remain unlet, or let with great difficulty at lower rents, because they have no garden or practicable yard, and this, in spite of the usually large demand for house-room in Wellington. Also there are cases of houses in all other respects correctly described by the agents as “eligible family residences,” which are deservedly rejected because they are without bathrooms. But it is equally true, unluckily, that many bouses are let and occupied which ought on their merits, or rather demerits, to be vacant. The scarcity in Wellington of satisfactory residences has long been a subject of complaint, and in spite .of the large amount of building that has gone on of late the grievance is by no means obsolete. This has long been, and still is, a marked 'drawback to the city of Wellington as a place of residence, and it is a little strange that the owners of house property have not made more entensive and systematic efforts to supply so obvious a demand. An improvement iu this respect would be beneficial to the city in many ways. Its health and trade, would both gain by such a reform. We are quite aware that in cases of the latter class authoritative interference is not at all easy. At the same time it is not impracticable. The City Council already has passed by laws rendering compulsory the adoption of certain sanitary appliances and enabling some nuisances to be suppressed. We believe the. Council might fairly go a step further, and require additional conveniences to be

provided, such as the invariable laying on cf water, and even the inclusion of a bathroom, however small, in the plan of every new house. In the case of the inferior class of houses interference is urgently required, and if the municipal by-laws ,as they ‘now stand do not give sufficient power to the local authorities, then they should be amended as may be found necessary. The oft-heard parrot-cry about “the liberty of the subject” may of course be raised in this connection, but the public good is the first consideration. ’ If experience proves that some curtailment of individual liberty of action is essential to the good of the majority, this mast be submitted to. As it is, we do not allow people to do a number of things (which they would do if not so checked) because these would be injurious or objectionable to their neighbours. It is only acting on the same principle to prevent their erecting (or, at any rate, letting) houses which are insanitary, or would be otherwise perilous to the inmates. And if it should turn out that the law as it now stands does ndc empower local authorities to make these needful regulations, then measures should be initiated in good time to get the requisite “'amendments in the law made next session. That there is “something rotten in the state ” of Wellington the Registrar General’s monthly vital statistics too plainly and unpleasantly show. That the defects to which we have called attention are among the eausesj direct or indirect, there can be little doubt, and these can and should be removed. That there are other causes is no less certain, but the consideration of these we must leave lor another day.