"A CITY BEAUTIFUL."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1410, 10 April 1912, Page 6

"A CITY BEAUTIFUL."

Sir,—Eo your article on "A City Beautiful," by J. K. Palmer, Town Clerk. Ho says "wo hero have nothing to Jearn." No! "Well, could not wo learn to put down decent footpaths? For instance, take the case of Courtenay Place from tho gasworks to Cuba Street. Fancy tho rubble one has to scramble over, if one or two pcoplo aro walking on the flagged half of that footpath. It's a standing disgrace, to tho city that a great arterial route liko the ono under notice should'ho kept in such a disgraceful state, instead of being put in tho pink of condition. Dozons of other paths nro in a similar state. Take places right in tho centre of the city, in front of Harcourt's, Bothune's, Pipitea Street, and so on. What cussedness on the part of some paid officer of the city is responsible lor their present rotten etnto? Also, llr. Palmer butt a motor-propelled water vohiclo in Sydney. Good heavens, did he? Well, I wondor if he knows that our electricpropelled water sprinkler is kept for about nine-tenths Df its time safely housed in the sheds, so as not to incur too much expense in cleaning it after a run out. (That, anyway, is tho assumption.) On the dustiest days , when ono expects to see tho sprinkler over all lines, whether wood blocked or not, it is conspicuous by its absence mostly. Further, what about a city beautiful hero when his council has caused to lie destroyed the beautiful broom (I do not mean gorse) that clad the Tinakofi Hills, and leaves instead a bare, barren hillside? Those green nnd goldcovered slopes were a sight of beauty to many citizens and thousands of voyagers to the city coming up tho Harbour. . I jiav.a net hcaid the. fiojansil state that itj.

is. intended to plant those slopes ivilk anything to replace the broom. Who is responsible for the waste of hundreds of pounds in planting Mount Victoria slope?, and then, for the want of a further few pounds, allowed the place to become a waste, and the majority of plants to lieruined, owing to lack of attention? But why quote further?—l am, etc., A. JOYNT.