The Daily News MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. MORE LIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 23 September 1907, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. MORE LIGHT.

Light and air and sunshine are popu- ( larly supposed to be the common pro- ' perty of the aristocrat and the plebian j too. The plebian may go out and look ( for his share; the aristocrat or the ■ plutocrat or the bureaucrat may have , it without moving. An ability to buy land is an ability also to possess light, air, and sunshine. The three are essen- . tials. If everyone had enough of them there would be no doctors necessary and the British pharmacopoeia wouldn't exist. New Zealand is large enough to allow every man, woman, and child tin thousand times more light and air and sunshine than they can possibly use. Jinn's soul is small enough to deny a reasonable modicum to his neighbor. It was a curious case heard in Auckland I the other day in which a party recovered . £75 under an ancient Act which had recognised the right of a property-owner to light. Jt appears that this owner had held the use of the light for a long period, and when his neighbour built so that he couldn't get the light that belonged to him he was angry and claimed damages, which lie got. And the principle of that ancient law is a very good one If it were generally recognised the dangers of slums would not exist. Creed of personal gain is | more prevalent in Xew Zealand than in 1 Aberdeen, and while there are millions of acres of country vacant in this colony, this same greed piles houses on to pocket-handkerchief sections and poisons humanity. Unimproved values rating, about which there are such vast differ - ences of opinion, has, of course, been responsible for some of the conditions that made the Auckland man worry about his portion of light; but until a Legislature, which is as greedy after taxes as the general public is after . gain, realises that light is as necessary to every man as food is, the sky will be hidden more and more and windows be considered unnecessary. In hundreds of buildings in Xew Zealand it is necessary to keep gas or electric light burning all day. This is excellent for eye specialists and spectacle-makers. Interference with the liberties of people is not, in theory, permitted even in a country where every man, woman, and child is closely watched by an inspector of some kind. But a neighbour has all sorts of inalienable rights of getting even with somebody else. All over Now Zealand in towns, greed is devastating home life. We build shoddily, we put treacle into tins and call it honey, we play tricks that many other people elsewhere would scorn. If a landlord can build a shop in front of a dwelling-house and make the tenant uncomfortable he will frequently do so. lie is doing this kind of thing in every large town in New Zealand. Another" case touching on the same matter was reported a day or so ago. This was a case brought bv the neighbour of a man who had plantc'd a row of trees along the dividing fence between residences. This, of course, meant that in the future the neighbour would be robbed of the light that he ftad hitherto enjoyed. It is fortunate m some respects that a large number of dwellings in New Zealand are notoriously jerry-built of the worst possible materials.

The fortunate part of this execrable business, which is one of the greatest scandals m the country, is that a majority of the dwelling-houses now existing will be ruins in a few years, while the tinilier supply of the country will be cut out. When New Zealand is bein" rebuilt—a thing that must inevitably happen—it is hoped that politicians will be enlightened enough to prohibit the sinful methods now so frequently employed, and which are a menace to the comfort and health of the people, because these methods are used in conjunction with paucity of light, miserable backyards, deadly narrow passages, and general mistiness that is charged for at nice prices. Supine civic politicians and the "greased palm" are responsible for a good deal of discomfort and the lack of light in more ways than one. For a country which pretends that it is rushing onward to socialism, there' is no place in the world where the desire to fatten on one's neighbour is more apparent than in New Zealand. In a country that ought to be the most comfortable in the world, somebody ought to be in gaol for it.