SLUMS IN NEWTOWN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 200, 22 May 1944, Page 6

SLUMS IN NEWTOWN

Labour Mayoral Candidate’s Criticism ERECTION OF FACTORIES Speaking al.Si. Thomas’s Hull on Friday night, -Mr. -lames Roberts, Labour candidate for the mayoralty, said the many slums in Newtown and the general conditions of this once important ami pleasant residential suburb were an indictment of the Tory administration ot Wellington City. The South Wellington Progressive Association bad informed him that they had pleaded witli tile council not to allow the erection .of teetoriei alongside residences. Despite tin. p-o tests of the people, those lactones mcil erected and could not be deserihed as other than a nuisance that was 1 tabh destroying ami an, nicoin eniince to i 1 *- pcopie. Those lactones were eievrU alongside a slum by the permission ol the present council ami against the idem*ings of the people. They, therelore, added insult to injury. Mr. Hislop, the .present mayor, had said in a newspaper article that die council desired to zone the . west side o Adelaide Road for industrial purposes and the east side for residential purposes. “Stirelv,” said Mr. Roberts, "lactones on one side of a street and houses on the other side is not planning for a beautiful city. It is planning for grime, dirt, smoke and all the things that went to make the slums of the past and will undoubtedly make for the rotten system ot tenement bouses and slums for Wellington for the future. “A Labour Council, when elected, Mill zone the city into industrial and residential areas, ami that zoning will , not permit factories on one siuq ol the street and dwelling homes and flats on the other,” said Mr. Roberts. Referring to planning, Mr. Robert said that every city in the world of any note had. not only prepared plans out many of them were at present being implemented. The latest plans for the rebuilding of London provided that lor every 1000 residents in a district there should be four acres of playing area, and in the outer districts, which ho presumed were not controlled by the London County Council, the amount allowed was more than double. He was afraid that some of the smm owners and wealthy flat-owners in Wellington city would have to take up residence in a private hospital if such a regulation were imposed on them by ths Government or the local authorities,, but it would be done and must be done. The people were entitled to health-giving open spaces.

TONIGHT’S MEETINGS

Election meetings of Citizens' candidates wlil be held tonight at .Mornington. ) ogelmorn Hall. Brooklyn. Baptist Church, and Worscr Bay Public School. All meetings start at 8 p.m. Labour candidates will bold meetings tonight at 8 o’clock at the Molesworth Street Methodist Schoolroom, the Ngaio Town Hall, the Tutanekai Hall. Adelaide Road, and 'St. Anne’s Church Hall. Northland.