Most of the dwellings are of wood, and rents are, like the hills surrounding the city, high. The weekly system of paying bills is customary here. Some of these homes, for which $25 and $35 a month rent is paid, are difficult to reach, even after one has alighted from a cable car. Rents are higher in Wellington than in any city of Australasia. Wages, too, are comparatively low. Laborers receive no more than in cities where rent is much cheaper. Mechanics receive about $3 a day.
One cannot but observe the trend of industrial advancement in almost every quarter of the globe visited. It is a very dull place, indeed, where houses or buildings of some sort are not under course of construction. In Wellington the sound of hammer and saw is heard in valleys and on hillsides miles away from the city. Landlords squeezed their tenants so hard that the government was finally induced to help the citizens by advancing money with which to build homes on sites some distance from the capital.
Arbitration courts fix wages, but that system of settling disputes between employer and employe works out better in theory than in practice, judging from the number of strikes that so frequently take place. Anyway, one clause of this law is very effective—if a man works for an employer for a less wage than had been fixed by the court, both employer and employe are fined.
Double-decked street cars are in use in Wellington, as in cities of the South Island. A few cars run on Sunday up to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The fare up to that hour being 12 cents, persons going to and from church might have reason to pinch on the contribution to make up for excessive street-car charges. The custom is hard to explain. Certainly, it is too far to walk from some of the valleys to the city, but, as a limited number of cars are run for the convenience of churchgoers, why this overcharge? It is possible church-going people have a Sunday commutation ticket; if so, non-churchgoers who patronize the cars would pay the freight.
Gas costs $1.80 a thousand feet here. A private company controls this commodity.
Wellington, with a population of 75,000, is the chief seaport of New Zealand. In addition to being located in the center of the two islands, its good, land-locked harbor, deep enough to admit vessels of great draught, adds greatly to its commercial prestige. Big vessels plying between England and New Zealand dock and start from here.
Meat is no dearer than in other New Zealand cities—6 to 12 cents a pound. Telegraph messages cost but 12 cents for 12 words.
The government pays pensions to citizens who have reached the age of 65 years and whose incomes do not exceed $240 a year. This rate is the same as is paid in Australia—$2.40 a week each to husband and wife.
The Town Hall, with other municipal and business buildings, is a creditable one, and its auditorium and balconies are packed with people who attend the Sunday evening concerts, furnished by the city, which do not begin until church services are over. A good museum is another attraction. Little in favor of the streets can be said, however, for they are poorly laid out and are not kept as tidy as those in other cities.
Newspapers are well up to the mark for the size of the city, and had I been short of funds, I could have kept my head above water, as I was offered work here.