THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 1880. A WHOLESOME REFORM.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2056, 25 September 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 1880. A WHOLESOME REFORM.

No more wholesome reform could well be made in this good city of Christchurch than a well-arranged system by which one individual in search of another individual might be able to find him without a vast expenditure of time and patience. For is it not a too notorious fact that the want of all attempt to number or localise the houses in Christchurch is productive of the greatest inconvenience ? The question may bo viewed in reference to postal arrangements and to the general public, but in either case the existing state of affairs cannot be thought satisfactory. To a stranger entering the place for the first time the whole matter presents, indeed, something of tho ludicrous. Not so, however, to the resident. To him tho annoyance he has experienced for years has gone far beyond that region where he can afford to look pleasant over it as an excellent joke. The nuisance of frequent hunts after persons or families has eaten into his soul as only petty and often recurring annoyances can. Of the various streets of the town fake, for instance, Hereford street. Not only does this street extend eastward to the town belt, but far beyond it. Such a direction as Mr. A , Hereford street East, scarcely localises the gentleman’s residence more than if tho direction were merely Christchurch. There is fully a mile of houses on each side of the street eastward of Colombo street (reckoning that portion inside and that portion outside tho belt) and along there two solid miles of houses may the puzzled searcher wander, his best chance of success being tho luck of hitting upon somebody who happens to know the persons searched after. To everybody to whom time is of value this is a most serious inconvenience. Business men in particular have just cause to complain. If a client has to bo interviewed at his own residence, a long time is often 'spent in finding out tho place. But surely some scheme might bo devised to remedy all this. City dignitaries erect drinking fountains to commemorate their terms of office, or they put up lamps or they label bridges with their names, as if they had given them to the town or as if their names were a species of trade mark, but anyone who wishes to do a real service to the community at large would erect a memento of his term of power far more intrinsically valuable than any of the above, if he would bring forward in, and carry through, the Council a motion for localising the houses of the citizens. The inconvenience of no settled plan of localising residences has been felt in other towns. For example, it was found, after a lengthened trial, to bo unbearable in an English town, which, singularly enough, resembles Christchurch in many particulars. Leamington in Warwickshire is, outside its main streets, a somewhat loosely built town. Its streets and gardens are thickly studded with trees, a circumstance not usual in the old country, and through it winds a river about tho same size as the Avon. Some years ago a large portion of Leamington was not numbered on any fixed principle Every householder called his house Something Villa or Something Lodge, and the hunting up a man in Leamington was much like performing the same operation in Christchurch. A fixed melancholy was noticeable in tho looks of tho postmen, tho butchers’ boys were haggard beyond their years, and nothing but a severe course of tho waters for which the town is so celebrated, saved tho debt collectors from the lunatic asylum or the grave. Tho Town Council saw all this, and resolved to move. The houses were blocked off, numbered, and tho postmen, tho butcherboys, tho debt collectors, and tho public at large, gained in flesh and looked thoroughly relieved. What tho Town Council of Leamington has done, surely the City Council of Christchurch might venture to attempt.

As to the method to be adopted various plans will of course suggest themselves. Wo believe that some sort of a trial or suggestion was once made by which a certain number of numbers were given to a certain space in each street. But that plan appears very cumbersome, and was found unworkable. Then again to number the houses right through the street would also be impracticable, for on the erection of new houses the whole of the numbers would bo disarranged. But wa can see no objection to lettering the various blocks. The city being laid out in blocks, nothing could bo easier than to give to each its particular letter. Take the street wo have before used as an example, viz., Hereford street, and let us illustrate what wo mean. The block inside tbo belt on the north side of the street might be number A, and the one opposite, on the south side of the street, B. Progressing westward, the next to A on the north side of the street would bo C and the opposite D, and so on throughout the whole length of the street. It is very evident that, in each street running east and west, the same letter would always the same relative position in the street. For instance, anybody would at once know whore block

B, Arnug’t street, was situated. And, if j the streets running north and south were lettered in the same manner, the result would be the same. So far, then, for localizing the block in which an individual lived. If anything further were required, the houses in each block might well bo numbered as they now stand, fir in the event of a now house being put up, the numbers to be altered would be but small, and, at the most, would only extend through that particular block. An address would then run in this manner: —Mr. X, Cashel street, B3,orMr Y, Colombo street, C 4. The ease with which a house might bo found with such au address would be perfect. This lettering would bo used for the portion of the streets inside the belts. If it wore found advisable that the portions of the streets outside the belts should still keep their present names, the blocks there might bo treated in somewhat a similar manner, but be distinguished in some way which would render all chance of their being mistaken for blocks inside the belt altogether out of the question. Wo have thrown out these few suggestions with no wish to intimate that they are the best available, but from the solo desire of seeing something done in a matter which has become a serious annoyance to the ratepayers. If the subject were only opened out, wo feel convinced that something practical would result to the groat convenience of the general public.