“LOOK TO THE HOMES”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8308, 20 December 1912, Page 8

“LOOK TO THE HOMES”

DRILL AND /ESTHETICS SLUMS AND PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY. Conversing with a member of the “Times” staff yesterday, an educational expert urged co-operation between the municipalities and the Government towards achieving the ideal of physical efficiency that inspired the new scheme of scientific drill for scholars at primary schools. He agreed that highly beneficial results would issue from the system when pus into operation; hut the surroundings in which children lived had an important bearing upon tho general problem of physical well-being. He thought it would bo a wise procedure for the Government to assist municipal bodies in tho abolition of congested areas, and such slums as had developed in our midst. The scheme of physical drill, though excellent, did not go far enough, and tho directors of our educational system needed to look towards the environment of children’s byes. There were many dwellings in Wellington, as a recent article in the “Times” had pointed out, that were shabby and huddled in squalor, Being disposed in a manner that shut out sunshine and breezes. The formative influences ot home in the development of character were profound and lasting, and there was a danger that the value of tlio drill might be lessened through evil surroundings, unhealthy to the aesthetic and moral nature. The aim of education, after all, was a full-orbed development of mind, body and soul. LEGITIMATE FUNCTION.

Moreover, influential authorities in civic government agreed that cultivation of the aesthetic nature of citizens was a legitimate and necessary function of the municipality. Neglect of that care indicated an inadequate sense of responsibility. Wellington had, to a certain degree, recognised its duties in this direction by providing municipal concerts, music, and lectures. But there was yet much to be done in making pleasant and fresh the everyday surroundings in which citizens and their children were compelled to live. Financial difficulties existed, but were they insuperable? Unless dwellers in slums were educated, hy compulsion or suasion, into making their surroundings cleaner and healthier, the inevitable tendency with these areas was to become' gradually worse. Such people became infected with a Stoic fatalism; the sense of beauty died within them, and everything was apparelled, not in celestial, but in a drab light. LESSONS FROM GERMANY. Our German cousins had in this—as in so many other civic and, educational problems—taught us an effective lesson. Allied with a thorough system of Swedish drill in the schools, the city authorities had taken the bull by the horns in regard to the surroundings of town dwellers. The cleanly habits of the people had doubtless contributed to the result, but it was a fact that “ slummy ” areas existed in German towns within the last couple of decades. A traveller who returned recently from Europe declared that for an hour and a half he was in a motorcar looking for slums in Berlin. Ho failed in his search, for “ every schoolboy knows ” that German cities are among the cleanest in Europe. The municipalities had wisely resumed the land on which unsightly and insanitary dwellings, with narrow, lanes, had stood. Many a gabled and picturesque building dating from mediaeval times had been demolished, but the health of the people was more important than conservation of historic structures. BOSES AND LINDENS. On this land—now intersected with spacious boulevards—fine modern flats had been erected, and roses bloomed in the street, beneath the shade of handsome lindens. London had had to resume slummy areas, and visitors within recent years would have noticed the vast improvement in the Strand. Where once, on the north side, there stood rows of dilapidated buildings which harbored vice and filth, there now sweeps the broad crescent-shaped Aldwyeh, flanked with noble buildings. The cost of the transformation was high, but what, compared with the accession of civic dignity and wellbeing? MUNICIPALITY MUST HELP. New Zealand cities would probably have to face the same undertaking, and the resources of our civilisation were surely equal to the task. The new generation needed to be trained in civics as well as in physical exercises. The scholars might be instructed in the value of gardens and ornamental shrubbery round dwellings, the great importance of sunshine and free access of breezes; the necessity for cleanly habits in making homes beautiful and green. But such instruction would avail little unless practical assistance were given by the municipality, and a determination shown that dingy dwellings with sunless backyards, or none at all, shall be things of the past.