MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2563, 26 July 1909, Page 3

MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE.

AYORK OF THE SYDNEY CITY COUNCIL.

The cablegrams last week announced tliat the Sydney City Council was embarking on a great scheme for the improvement of that city and the dwellers therein. Since 1900 the Sydney Council lias led the civic organisations in Australasia; in municipal enterprise, and the scheme outlined in the Press is in conformity with the ideals governing the activities of that body. The real problem facing civic bodies lies in the direction of making our cities beautiful. That which at one time was left to individual effort has now come as a duty of the representatives of our municipality. The question of, proper housing for tlie workers has been successfully elucidated by the London County Council, the Corporations of Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Dublin, and other large cities in Great Britain. It is not a question of sanitation of buildings, or the amount of cubic air space per individual, but a broader aspect is .gaining predominance. The garden-city ideal so successfully determined in Paris has now become a basis for activity, and municipal enterprise devotes some considerable attention to this phase of city life. Germany is especially enthusiastic in encouraging the city worker is beautifying his environments, and the time is near (says the "Press”) when our own City authority must attend to this matter. The beautifying of our City is in the hands of a few enthusiastic individuals, and it is to their credit. But experience elsewhere proves that a larger amount of good has resulted when the civic body controls this movement. The Sydney City Council are to he commended on their work in other directions, amongst which may be inentioned public markets, especially in regard to the fish, supply. They have also devoted attention to the protection of the public in regard to cleanliness of foodstuffs, and tlie regulations imposed on butchers’ shops, for instance, might receive attention here. The worst phase of city life is the quest’on of .'.slum districts, and keen attention is now being given to this disorder. Tlie Bishop of London recently said: "Compared with the fine physique of the public schoolboys, it is reailly touching to see the dwarfed, underfed, undersized men -who corn© from the slums.” Better housing for ou r citizens should, be constantly in. view by our municipal representatives. The London Council and-other civic bodies in Great Britain are endeavoring not only-to- provide good houses for the workers, but are seeking to encourage people away from the centres of cities..