LESS CLEANING IN AUCKLAND

Southland Times, Issue 23165, 5 April 1937, Page 6

LESS CLEANING IN AUCKLAND

STREETS IN UNTIDY STATE EFFECT OF LABOUR LAWS (Special to The Times.) AUCKLAND, April 3. Street cleanliness is not one of Auckland’s civic virtues. Members of the crew of the Pan-American Clipper have remarked on the attractive view of Auckland from the air, their impressions being the whole city seemed as clean as a new pin. That was apparently from a height of about 1000 ft, but a closer view of Queen street and Karangahape road yesterday morning hardly supported this graceful tribute. On both sides of Queen street there was an accumulation of discarded theatre tickets, waste paper, matches an<J cigarette packets, which the thoughtless pedestrian discards as he passes. To this unsightly litter had been added the sweepings of many shops, which cleaners had brushed across the footpaths to the gutters. It is not so many years since Auckland’s main thoroughfares were cleaned every night and a flushing with water in the early hours of the morning left an almost spotless city when the business of the day began. During the depression the amount allocated for this essential service had to be greatly reduced, and the new labour legislation, bringing with it higher wages and shorter hours, has further restricted the operations of the street-cleaning gangs. Up to about 1928 these main streets were swept every night, including Sundays, and flushing with water was carried out about three times a week. Now only two men work on the night shift in Queen street and one in Karangahape road, and in Queen Street even this meagre service is further curtailed, as to comply with the 40-hour requirement it has been found necessary to leave the streets unswept on Sunday and Thursday nights. The employment of a relief man enables the work to be done in Karangahape road each night. Official records show that street cleaning costs the city approximately £15,000 a year, and this includes the operation of the carts, with their attendant sweepers, who work throughout the day. There are six carts, with six sweepers, working about the streets in the centre of the city, and two carts, with two extra men, sweeping and collecting in the Newton district, in addition to other crews, which look after the streets in the residential districts. In 1928 the council’s allocation for this service was as high as £22,000, and this has now been reduced to £15,000, but, with higher wages and shorter hours, the city is not getting as much service for its £15,000 as it would have received for a similar amount nine years ago.