THE CITY STREETS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25172, 12 March 1943, Page 2

THE CITY STREETS

* 4 * • - It would be idle to deny the existence of ground for the complaint made at a meeting of the Amenities Society respecting the condition of many of the city streets. A member of the Wellington City Council is reported to have said lately that Wellington is the dirtiest city in the Dominion. We are not concerned to challenge this claim to a dubious reputation for a shortage of labour in Wellington must, as is the case in Dunedin, seriously affect the ability of the municipal authorities to maintain their thoroughfares and public places in a condition that would be satisfactory to them. But we must frankly admit that in our own city the state of the streets and of some of the little reserves, which not so long ago gave residents cause for pride and must have very favourably impressed visitors, is at the present time far from creditable. It is only fair, at the same time, to the Corporation departments that are responsible to acknowledge that

the necessary transference of manpower to the armed forces has subjected them to a handicap so severe that they are, as is quite understandable, unable to preserve a desirable standard of tidiness. A suggestion that the pupils of some of the primary schools should be encouraged to undertake certain classes of work in the reserves is one the adoption of which would probably be advantageous in more than one respect, as not only would the pupils be rendering a service of present value to the community, but the effect of the performance of this service might be shown in later years in an appreciation on their part of the aesthetic and economic importance of horticulture and arboriculture. If, however, schoolboys may usefully employ some of their leisure time in activities under supervision in the city reserves, it may be suggested that the shortage of municipal labour presents an opportunity to householders to ensure by their personal efforts that the frontages to their properties are kept clear of unsightly growths of grass and weeds.