THE CONCRETE PROBLEM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 14, 18 January 1915, Page 8

THE CONCRETE PROBLEM.

[To Tin? Editor Stratford Post.l Sir, —The public of Stratford within the sacred radius have been wondering at the thousands of ratepayers who .for several days have been trooping in and out of Mr H. Wilson’s inspired residence after reading Mr Wilson’s letter in your last Friday’s issue; however, there is no longer any need to wonder. It was those concrete water channels in Broadway that caused the petty pilgrimage to Mr Wilson’s shrine. “The waste, the worse than waste, the scandalous waste of money.” Each visiting ratepayer arrived with a sample slab ol concrete, and on suppliant knee, prayed the great “Ariketoa” “to drop you a line.” Sir, to protest emphatically against this woeful waste of money, one of Mr Wilson’s objections to the new work is that it is inferior to the old. In the old days when the old work was put in, concrete was cheap, and judging from its thickness it must have been placed in postion by a tipdray. The new work is not nearly so thick, but it is not an’eye-sore. Then the much visited authority say’s the new channel makes it more difficult to step from footpath to road. Allow me to suggest that all ratepayers who must step short should cany a small plank. This would get over the difficulty. The next objection urged by the inspired writer Is quite poetical, lest it should loose its beauty and dignity by abbreviation I quote verbatum. “The old channel was designed to give a gentle flow of the water and in case of a storm could spread itsell out.” What do you think of that for a. “gentle flow” of poetical language. One can almost hear the gentle splash of the rippling waves as they tumble into the tank—no, beg pardon—into the water table. Then, again, the ratepayers’ champion further spreads himself thusly: “Any sand that drifts in must stay there until swept away by the storm water.” Naughty sand, but more cruel storm water to sweep it away. Then, as if with a soulcrushing burst of emotion, the “concrete genius” asks the awful question: “And where is it swept. -1 ” Every ratepayer will feel relieved because this momentous question ist not left unanswered. We are told in bold and fearless language that this drifting sand will be swept, without pity or remorse, into the underground channels. What will happen underground? says the great Tribune. Go. he says, to the corner of Fenton and Juliet streets, and there seek for evidence of idiotic extravagance; go there and see the horrible, the bloodcurdling evidence of what has happened in the accursed underground channels.—f aln, etc., AMOS KEITH.