STATE OF FOOTPATHS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 434, 15 May 1937, Page 4

STATE OF FOOTPATHS

(To tho- Editor). Sir, —“Your Parks are lovely, but the paths to them are disgraceful, there being no foo’path worthy the name. In other towns there are many mile® of asphalt about four feet wide, in nearly all streets, while Stratford has? twelve foot asphalt in places, and none in others. You don’t seem to have grasped the fact that four fool asphalt is sufficient for most traffic, and goes three times as far as 12 foot. Ako, the Women’s Rest Room at the station does not compare at all favourably with of other towns.” The foregoing was the opinion of a visitor from the South Island recenti ly, who went on to say that the i Parks were much more beautiful j than those of most towns, although ! that would not continue to be the • case if the trees, were cut down, as | intended. I This visitor pointed out that footI paths worthy of the name were con-

; fined to Broadway. In other streets, ■ wide too paths have been formed on portions of street® where no dwellings are served, and all the paths are rough even now, and must be quagmires in winter. The mystery of the extraordinary attention given to Broadway, and the neglect of other streets puzzled this visitor, although it doe® not puzzle residents. With regard to .the Rest Room, this I visitor said the attendant must be at a great disadvantage owing to the i cramped accommodation. The visitor i had .to push through a narrow pas. | sage-—it does not deserve to be callI ed a room—over cigarette butts, prob. | ably left by indolent nurse girls, to the “conveniences” at the rear., which are open to the public gaze, ‘il certainly would not take my children there, and other towns have decent t places,” said' the visitor. I An excellent suggestion (from one point of view), was made, recently ( that the profits from electric light ■ should be used to improve the streets, thus making the small man Pay for upkeep, instead of applying the profits to reducing the rates of large mercantile firms and o hers as at present. In fact, why not double the charges for light and power? This would be a fitting climax to the policy of the council, which has been clearly to make the small man pay, and thus reduce the nates of the big I.ian. S rat ford evidently wants a new council of fair-minded men—l am, et<-, I “SMALL MAN.” | Stratford, May 15, 1937.