CLEANING UP THE CITY.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2742, 10 April 1916, Page 6

CLEANING UP THE CITY.

Sir, —If there are any of the "city mothers" who have time to help the health authorities in their efforts to "spring clean" the City, as suggested by your correspondent, Phoobe Myers, it would be quite easy,to find work for them. I refer to the deplorable state of decay and filth of some of the unoccupied dwellings'and shops in the older part of the City. If dust and dirt are -the cause of infantile paralysis, then every, wind that blows carries some of these poison germs to our children. We liave had . occasion to loolt into some of these disused buildings lately, in search of a cheap house for a children's school. In one case a dwelling that had been a Chinese shop for 20 * years, covered with thick- dust and cobwebs, \vith broken lireplaces, torn, dirty wallpaper, and dry-rot floors was offered to us, as' a favour, at 17s. 6d. a week. Noither paint nor cleaning could have made it habitable or we should probably havo taken it. Another • place that had onco been a well-kept residence' was in a similar condition with the City water supply merrily wasting over tho bsaniont floor. .If there are other vaoant shops or houses in a similar condition, and if the absentee owners are allowed to keep them so, then it will be a long time before we get rid of infantile paralysis. Let us help the children who cannot help themselves, and insist on absentee owners keeping their property in good sanitary condition. —I am, etc., CATHERINE ANDERSEN.