POLICE QUARTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23202, 28 May 1937, Page 10

POLICE QUARTERS

CONDITIONS IN AUCKLAND CRAMPED AND DRAUGHTY OCCUPANTS SUFFER DISCOMFORT (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, May 27. Uncomfortable, draughty and illventilated quarters are the lot of the single constables who live at the Auckland police barracks, which are located on the upper floors of a gaunt, old-fashioned building which constitutes the police headquarters in the city. The fresh appearance of the ground floor office is entirely at variance with the unprepossessing condition of the men's quarters —the cracked plaster of the walls alongside the stairways and the huddled cubicles which are the "rooms" of the constables on the top floor. There is a barn-like room, about 28 feet by 32 feet, into which 11 cubicles are crowded, each one measuring approximately seven feet by eight feet. Into these spaces are arranged with maximum effect a bed, a dressing table, and the personal effects of each man. The occupant of the cubicle may stand in the centre of his allotted space, and with his arms extended level with his shoulders almost touch the plasterboard which separates his quarters from his neighbours on either side. With plasterboard divisions about seven feet high, privacy is almost out of the question. In another part of the building where cubicles are located, it is doubtful whether natural light filters through. There are only two bathrooms and one lavatory for 18 men on the top floor, and on the lower floor there is a bathroom with only a cold water tap. In another part of the building there are three hot showers. Those men who prefer hot baths to showers must await their turn in the two bathrooms. Neither of the two top floors has any heating equipment in the men's cubicles and the men suffer the utmost discomfort in the winter. In summer the place is equally unpleasantly warm. Those who are on night duty may go off their beats at 5 a.m. with wet clothing and the usual method of drying them in the barracks appears to be confined to hanging their uniforms over the balustrade, or waiting until the owners have the opportunity of ironing them dry.

On the first floor is a room which was euphemistically known at one time as the sitting room. Excepting the fireplace and two uncomfortably hard straight-backed couches with flax seats, there is nothing to diminish the gloomy atmosphere of the place. Given these conditions it is scarcely surprising that colds are frequent. In light of these circumstances, it is ironic that at present the Auckland City Council is conducting a survey of housing conditions in various parts of the city, and that officers are examining apartment and other houses to check the possibilities of over-crowding and unhealthy living conditions.