EMPIRE CITY EVICTIONS. "Give Me My Pound of Flesh."

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 174, 31 October 1903, Page 6

EMPIRE CITY EVICTIONS. "Give Me My Pound of Flesh."

WELLINGTON is a "distiessful country " Have a chat with some of your legal friends, and ask them which Magistiate's Court form, not including the ordinary civil summons paper, is most used at present You will probably find that the ejectment order foim is most "popular Perhaps you, who have a comfortable billet, and a house your father left you, nevei stopped to think that if the average workman misses one week s work he may not be able to pay his rent, seeing that the prices asked for good, bad, and indifferent domiciles in the Empire City are, on an aveiage, higher than in any town in Austialasia The landlord of Wellington is naturally the autocrat of the city^ "Please bring your last rent-book," he says "No children." says another. "Four rooms 165," prints another, "one week s rent m advance ' He is putting up jeriybuilt structures as fast as an army of carpenters can hammer German nails" into sappy timber, and Wellington, outside its brick area, is rapidly becoming the most ramshackle city in the Empire Piobably, the best way to stop the issue of ejectment orders is the building of a large number of workmen s residences by the Municipality, or, better still, the erection of co<mfozi;able dwellings m new suburbs, which, by a speedy service of boats or trams, or both, shall be brought into close touch with the city That is the most urgent want of preseni>day Wellington We want more suburbs, and better facilities for getting quickly m and out of the city — morning, noon, and night * * * At present, things are far too crowded. Everyone wants to live as close as possible to- Lambton Quay, and lents within the congested city, of course, and its narrow fringe of congested subuibs go up to top levels It is to the electric trams we must look for the most direct cure The further they are pushed out from the city, the better will the conditions be for the sanitary and economic life of the busy bees of the industrial hive Then, each thrifty man may hope to become his own landlord, and competition will bring rents down to a reasonable level for those who prefer to remain tenants.