CLEANING UP AUCKLAND.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1188, 25 July 1911, Page 8

CLEANING UP AUCKLAND.

(By Telegraph.-Special Correspondent.! Auckland, July 23. In .in address last evening the Mayor nf Auckland (llr. C. J. Parr) referred lo the insmitaiy buildings in rome parts of the city, lie t-aid when he was asked to accept the position of Chief Magistrate of tlu- city lie realised that he was being invited to" take hold of as uninviting a proposition as any Mayor had been asked lo face. He had to tackle ilie plague and insanitary, unwholesome, and dirty conditions ripjiit through the city. Ho estimated it was his duty to tackle in a firm null resolute manner the problem of cleaning up the city. He did not impute any particular blame in the matter to hi.s immediate predecessors in office. They had nil, including himself and the councillors, to take a share of the blame for a system of slackness that had been allowed to grow up in these matters. When, however, a man became Mayor of the city it was incumbent on him to Rive a lead in showing how the existing evils should be remedied. Ho had not been afraid to face his duty in this respect, ami ho was not afraid to go on with it if they wished him to do so. (Hear, hear.) The council, almost to a member, was behind him in the matter, and he hoped to be able to do much more to make Auckland a clean and healthy city. (Applause.) He had already dealt with a great many things, including disease, the conditions under which the food supplies were prepared, and tho housing conditions. (A voice: "They are pretty rotten.") Already within three month's some 50 condemned houses had been pulled down, and this policy would be steadfastly continued.