AWAKE, YE SLEEPERS! The Race for Municipal Perfection.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 54, 13 July 1901, Page 8

AWAKE, YE SLEEPERS ! The Race for Municipal Perfection.

WELLINGTON will have to look to its laurels Auckland has awakened out of its deadly apathy, and is bidding high for Mayor Aitken's ambition to become municipally the most perfect city in the colony Auckland is to have a fire-fighting service that is capable of extinguishing fires, it is to minimise the existing danger by a revisal of its building by-laws, it is to make passable its fearful roads, it is to kill its meat without killing its citizens, by the establishment of modern abattoirs, and it is, if its good resolution lasts, to beat Wellington badly municipally • • * And Wellington, is she to calmly sleep ? Is she to remain a decade behind ? Does she require any of the good things Auckland has decided to have? We think so. Emulation is a fine quality, but there should be no need for Wellington to emulate Auckland As she is the Empire City, and the propounder of the notable ambition, why not be the first in the field for municipal perfection ? She is prosperous, wealthy, reasonably well able to govern herself. Why not make a start* 2 • • • If Auckland can afford to become modern, it is essential for Wellington's reputation that she does not remain ancient. As other countries send delegates to New Zealand to study modern legislation, why should not Auckland be induced to take a pattern by Wellington ? Wellington has. not a pattern at present, and the original piece is badly worn Imagine Wellington with a fast car service, m place of the horse and soul destroying perambulating devices now existing, wood-blocked streets, a sufficient water piessuie to allow of fire extinguishment, a modem system of fire escapes for large buildings, and a safer syfatem of building regulations • * * Wellington is not very much behindhand municipally from a New Zealand point of view, but she is m danger of being very badly left m the ruck if Auckland really means business Indolent peoples are frequently immensely energetic when a working fever attacks them This is Auckland s position, and she is possibly about to accentuate her natural advantages by modern treatment Wellington has thrown the stone of disdain at the Northern city, but she is not without municipal sin Perhaps, her sin is not so heinous, but it is sin nevertheless During the months that are necessary for Auckland to awaken out of its civic sleep let Wellington be up and doing.

Our Mayor and Councillors may be regarded as amongst the most able of municipal bodies in the colony. The enterprise of Wellington, the ability of its civic rulers, and their ambitions, should place it at the top of the municipal tree Given full scope, Wellington should, and we believe will, enter into the contest between, cities with a conscientious desire to attain its ambition. That it is easy of attainment, there can be no doubt, and we await with interest the result of the municipal race, which should result in an easy win for the Empire City