House Numbering In City Should Have Uniformity

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 August 1947, Page 4

House Numbering In City Should Have Uniformity

PRESENT SYSTEM LEADS TO CHAOS Complaint at the bad state of house numbering in Wanganui has been made from time to time by taxi drivers in the city and by visitors from other centres. To look for an obscure numbe ■ in a dark street is no easy task and as numbers, if they exist at all, may be painted on gates, doors, on letter boxes and in many queer positions which are not easily discernible, it is sometimes a hopeless effort if the hour it late. In some streets the numbers on one side of the street, are not odd and even on the other as is the usual custom but there may be a difference in twenty from one side’s number to the other’s. The provision of name plates tor streets is the duty of the Wanganui City Council but the showin; of house numbers is loft to the householder Metal numbers were available in retail stores before the war but they are not on the market frequently now. with ihe result that there is no ■ nformity in displaying numbers. In Palmerston North uniformity of house numbering has been adopted and at each intersection the noticehoard giving the name of the street ajso gives the numbers of the dwellings and the numbers painted in large figures are displayed on front gates in every case. This system could be adopted in Wanganui and would end much* of the worry of postmen, milkmen, delivery boys, postal messengers, taxi drivers and a host of others who daily waste time patiently searching for ’obscure numbers.

The signposting of streets in Ihe city also requires bringing up to date .so ’that at all intersections and corners in each street are indicated clearly.

The suggestion that the numbering of houses in Wanganui should lie reviewed and a system similar to that in operation adopted was advanced by a taxi driver. Finding strange numbers at night was a difficult matter and often resulted in a delay in answering calls. Some vehicles were fitted with a light which could be thrown on to the front of houses. Every house, he said, should have its number on the gate which would make things easy for the many people who found looking for strange numbers an unenviable task.