ASPHALTING THE FOOTPATHS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 213, 8 September 1877, Page 4

ASPHALTING THE FOOTPATHS.

To the Editor of the 'Evening Mail. Sir, — Permit me to suggest that steps should bd taken to abate a nuisance (daily growing worse) which has grown to proportions that demand attention. I refer to the discharge into the harbor of the surplus gas tar and water from the city works, Haven road. The stench arising from the mud and tar oa the flat opposite the works, when the sun is strong od, is simply abominable, as evary one passing by can testify (the smell of the pure tar at the works is not to be got rid of, and is probably not unwholesome), but when mixed with the mud and salt water it is very offensive, and I believe could not be neutralised even by Ghollah; further it is no joke to find your newly painted boat water lined over white or some light color with coal tar, which is most expensive to remove, and I am not sure but that damages could be recovered from the Corporation in consequence. Allow me to point out a remedy. I have found that the tar when well boiled makes excellent pitch, which would form an article of export, or better still, with other cheap and easily procurable material make asphalt, for export or use on our own footpaths, which are being everlastingly gravelled and when newly done are most uncomfortable to walk on, and destructive to shoe leather and shop floors. The footpaths if properly asphalted should last about ten years, with B.*y ao annual coat of sand. There would be one third less area from which dust could rise io the summer, and being of a cleanly nature it would not become mud in wet weather or while washing shop fronts. The cost of asphalting is quite within the reach of the City Council, and in the long run cheaper than gravel. — I am, &c, Citizen.