The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1929. SANITATION AT OTAHUHU

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 565, 18 January 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1929. SANITATION AT OTAHUHU

MEN gathered in crowds at a football match or country racemeeting will tolerate conditions that would arouse their virtuous indignation if transplanted to the scene of their daily toil. At military camps during the war the sanitary arrangements were often of a crude nature, and in the trenches, of necessity, they were more primitive still. The soldiery, however, wen t its way unperturbed. Possibly it was not greatly interested in the political system of the day ; but the same cannot be said of one speaker at the indignation meeting held at the Otahuhu railway workshops on Tuesday, whose remarks were emphatically spiced with a political flavour. Echoes of Tuesday’s outcry are ringing yet. Pressmen have been shown round the plant by the workshops manager, and saw nothing very objectionable in the admittedly temporary arrangements. A photograph published in last evening’s Sun, however, showed that whether or not the tarpaulin enclosures referred to existed on Wednesday, at least one was there on Tuesday. Parallel with this may he mentioned the claim of a newspaper reporter that, when he asked an official for a statement on Tuesday afternoon, his attention was pointedly drawn to a notice, warning trespassers, at the entrance to the plant. The following day, however, pressmen were -conducted round the premises with due ceremony. The latest contributor to the discussion is the Hon. W. B. Taverner, Minister of Railways of about a month’s standing, who, as yet. can scarcely he expected to know much more about the Otahuhu workshops than the fact that they exist. The Minister makes the entirely reasonable claim that it was undesirable for such a large plant to be kept idle once it was completed. Pew will disagree with this argument, though there might he grounds for debate as to when a factory is, or is not; completed. Few home-builders, for instance, would consider their dwelling fit for occupation until the hath and other essential fittings were installed. Some of the workers at Otahuhu doubtless showed exaggerated fear of a pestilence or epidemic as a result of the use of temporary arrangements. The assurances given by the Health Department, which would he unlikely to condone the use of a grossly defective system at such a season as the present, show that there was no real danger. At the same time, independent observers seem to agree that the men had grounds for moderate complaint. If the arrangements were not insanitary, they were certainly not in line with the refinements of modern industrial practice. It is peculiarly unfortunate for the people who have made such a fine job of the Otahuhu workshops that a hitch between departments interfered with the original plan so that it was impossible to complete the structural work of the drainage system at the same time. On the general charge that they have failed to study the welfare of the workers they stand completely absolved. The workshops are fitted with showers, club-rooms, and such installations on a scale not hitherto paralleled in the Dominion. At the same time, to say that the men made their complaints against the drainage from sheer irresponsibility, and without any basis at all, is a reflection on a large body of citizens. It is to he hoped that the misunderstanding will soon be forgotten.