THE STREETS OF PARIS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 436, 11 January 1890, Page 3

THE STREETS OF PARIS.

Paris and London Mud. Mrs Frank Leslie describesin ‘Galignani’s Messenger ’ how the streets of Paris are kept in such excellent order. The streets of Paris can, of course, be dirty (she says), but the mud does not feel so much like clotted grease as that which the London smoke produces in the dismal thoroughfares of the huge metropolis. The Municipal Council do their work of cleansing the streets well and with methodical regularity. The work is a gigantic one. The total length of the streets, avenues, boulevards, bridges, quays, and thoroughfares generally is set down at about 600 miles, of which nearly 200 miles are planted with trees. The expense of keeping these thoroughfares in order and repair is 18,212,600 fr per annum, so that, if an equal distribution of the outlay among the population were to be made, each inhabitant would have to pay over Bfr a year in taxes for that purpose alone. The whole of this vast undertaking is managed by the director of ‘la Voirie,’ or Commission of Public Ways. Pie, Paf, Pouf. The best stone used for paving purposes is the old compact sandstone quarried at Fontainebleau and a few other places on the outskirts of the Paris basin. There are three varieties, known respectively as pif, paf, and pouf ; tho first is too hard for catting, and the last too soft for pa>ing ; the right sort is the paf. The footways are partly made with lavas and 'basalts from Volvic, in Auvergne, and partly with a mixture of bitumen and gravel. Wooden pavement has in a measure taken the place of the old system of macadamising for the broader thoroughfares, such as the Champs Elysees, the Rue de Rivoli, the Place Veodome, the place de la Concorde, the Avenue do l’Opera, the boulevards, etc. After numerous experiments with different kinds of wooden pavement, the plan finally adopted is to form a bed of lime concrete for base and then deposit, narrow side upwards, smallbloeks of pine- wood, previously steeped in tar, and of the size of ordinary bricks. Between every row a space is left, a quarter or half an inch wide, tilled up by gravel and sand, well rammed in, the whole being coated over with another concrete where tar is the binding medium. Experience has shown this plan to be next to perfect. Parisian Trees. The shade trees planted along the quays, avenues, and boulevards, and in the squares, parks, and gardens, number more than 400,000, including the elm, lime, white and red chestnut, plane, ash, birch, pine, sycamore, and pseudo-acacia. Of the more recently introduced samples of trees now acclimatised, I may instance the Pauloicnia and Cathulpa. with their frondent masses of gaunt green leaves ; the hardy Allanlus, or Japanese varnish-tree,' which seems to pull through all weathers, thriving mostly when others succumb ; the Judas-tree, which bears a fine bunch of red flowers ; the stately Triacanthon, or thorn tree, which is supposed to have furnished the thorns with which the crown of Christ was made ; etc. All these exotic trees may be found at one point or another of the boulevards. These and the rest of their more homely congeners must be kept trimmed to a height of nine feet above the footpaths, and the latter must be kept clear of leaves.