The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2074, 8 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1907.

& tho~Hom T. W. Hislop reinstalled Mayor of Wolhngton iho other day ho took tho opportunity of laying before tlio public some rea grievances which tho City Council lias against tho Government. It wil Bo remembered that tho Workmen s Homes experiment made by the Government some months ago lias boon a pronounced failure, for reasons that havo already appeared in those columns, and presumably in 01 or o wipe out tho stigma of that failure tho Cabinet has resolved to keep on constructing workmen’s homes m other localities, until it can be said ■with somo show of reason that the sclieino is a succoss. In order to do that it is necessary in tho first place that the homos shall bo constructed within easy distance of where workmen are employed, and in the next place that the houses shall be constructed thoroon as cheaply as possible, so that tho capital value thereof, including cost of land, will permit them to bo lot at a rental within the moans of the workmon. To achieve this result, tho Government purchased an acre of land in Coroman-del-streot, at a price which compels tho Department to squeeze together as many houses upon the section as it is possible to do, and as the acre had ,but one frontage it was also necessary to form a street through it. If a private owner had attempted to do this he would be bound by the dity bye-laws to make the streot of legal width, as sanctioned by tho statutory law, so that no more slums may be permitted to oxist; but apparently the Department is bound by neither law nor principle, and it has ignored the protests of the City Council in regard to the width of tho street through the property in question. It has, in fact, created a slum in the face of both law and reason, and while professing to conserve the rights and comfort of tho workers, the Government does not hesitate to sot a bad example to 'private citizens, and throw principle to the winds when it wants to suit its own ends. That this experiment will bo as big a failure as the similar ones tried elsewhere there is not much room for doubt, because of the high cost of the land chosen and tho necessity to convert the place into a slum, in order that a sufficient number of houses may be erected thereon to divide that cost amongst the greatest possible number. The next grievance aired by Mr. Hislop was the fact that the Council had legally defined a brick area within which no wooden buildings were permitted to be erected; but hero again the Government flouts • tho Council s legal authority, and in contravention of all principle, and the public safety from disastrous fires, has proceeded to erect wooden buildings, regardless of the Council’s emphatic protests. But a third, and even more unjust pieco of tyranny had to be complained of. For about thirty years the water mains leading to the city have lain along the Hutt road, and cross the Hutt railway line once or twice. That line is now being duplicated, and the Public Works Department has requested the City Council to remove their mains. This request the Corporation readily agreed to, on the condition that the Department should bear the cost; but, though we live in “God’s Own Country,” and not in Russia, the Government point blank refuses to do anything of tho kind, and insists upon the Council removing the pipes at its own expense for the convenience of the Department. When Rufus Choate eloquently described law as “the absolute justice of the State, enlightened by the perfect reason of the State,” he had no ,knowledge of what the State is capable of doing in “God’s Own Country,” for it is plain from the facts above related that the State is capable of such glaring injustice that it may truly be .said there is no law as far as it is concerned j For (that reason the matter is of more than local interest, and for the same reason it is as well that people should know what they may expect from a Government that is ready to preach one thing and practice another, to disregard every principle of justice .and.of law in order to serve its own ends. Its members are the loudest in their declamations of anything that tends to incommode the working man (when they want liis .votes), and yet are- prepared, as in this case, to shovel him into' a slum with the barest mimimum' of air space, and less than his due share of sunlight, by crowding houses together and inviting him t 6 dwell therein and be happy as a State tenant.