What, no graffiti?

YOU can't help but be struck at the lack of vandalism, delinquency and graffiti in New Zealand towns and cities. There's the occasional bus stop calamity and smashed car windscreen, but somehow it all seems to be nonthreatening kids with high jinx, not the knife carrying, attitude-bearing "yooffs" that Britain's managed to spawn in the last twenty years.

However, the bi-annual report into the quality of life in the twelve biggest Kiwi cities did find that just under half (45.3%) of New Zealand residents view vandalism as a problem within their area over the last twelve months.

As a rough summary, the cities compare in the following way. Those more likely to have rated vandalism as a problem are:

    • Living in Christchurch (61.4%), Manukau (60.9%), Auckland (57.5%), Porirua (53.7%), Waitakere (51.4%) and Hutt City (50.8%)

Those less likely to have rated vandalism as a problem are:

    • Living in Wellington (36.0%), outside of the twelve cities (36.1%) and Rodney (40.4%)

The full report can be found on the government site