The Globe. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 5, 5 June 1874, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1874.

The unfortunate persons who are obliged to pass through Cathedral square after the darkness has set in must be strongly impressed with the economy of the City Council. The number of gas lamps might, we think, he considerably increased, without making any very great addition to the lighting rate. There are two lamps on the Cathedral side of the square, and they only serve to render the darkness visible, if they should both happen to be alight, whilst the probability is that the pedestrian will ave to plunge into utter darkness after leaving the Bank of New Zealand, as the lamp at the other end of thesquare is frequently extinguished, whether purposely or accidentally, we cannot say. With the winter, and its accompanying long evenings, coming on, the subject demands attention, more especially as Christchurch is by no means free from the pest of so many colonial towns, and seems already able to boast of a goodly number of “ larrikins.” It is we suppose in consequence of the bad lighting of this square, one of our principal thoroughfares, that a* crow r d of young men and boys who may be considered as belonging to the class we have mentioned, meet almost every night, and invariably on Saturday and Sunday evenings, and by their remarks, and very frequently by their horse play, render it almost impossible for any respectable female, without an escort, to walk along the street in question. The police have made one or two attempts to cope with the nuisance, but their elforts do not appear to have been crowned with any great success, and until the part of the town we speak of is better lighted, and a stronger staff of constables posted along the square, and at the corner of High street and Colombo street, more especially on the nights we have mentioned, the more respectable portion of the population will avoid that thoroughfare if possible. The lighting of the town in other places is not at all creditable ; for instance at the junction of Armagh street and Oxford terrace, a miserable kerosene light is made to do duty for a gas lamp, and this, although there are other lamps round the spot, and the laying o £ a pi po to tino oornor tto opoalr of could not be objected to on economical grounds. 1 It is, we suppose, useless to expect that w r e can get our gas at a rate which would enable the Council to light the city realiy well, though why t.here should be such a difference as at present exists between the price of the article here and in Dunedin we are unable to say ; but we think that insufficient lighting is a false economy, and that the citizens would not grudge the small addition to their rates which would enable the Council to furnish us with something like a decent light in the main streets of the town.