The Viagraph. 51 



in connection with tourist development. He believed that last 

 summer a great many more tourists came to Ireland than ever 

 came before. A great many of them were cyclists and they 

 were somewh-t disgusted with the condition of the roads. 

 Some declared they would never come back, the roads were in 

 such a bad state. The Irish roads should be improved so as to 

 induce the cyclist to come to the country. 



Professor Fitzgerald said Mr. Cowan had spoken of a good 

 many of the things to which he had intended to refer, concern 

 ing the condition of our roads, far better than he could have 

 done. Mr. Cowan mentioned the very heavy expense that 

 would be required to bring the roads into anything like decent 

 condition, and it was sufficient to look at Mr. Brown's diagrams 

 to see how much would have to be done. Those diagrams 

 were far more eloquent than any words descriptive of the state 

 of the roads. iVIr. Cowan had mentioned ^3,000,000 as the cost 

 of putting the County Down roads in good condition through- 

 out. He (Professor FitzGerald) believed that the value to the 

 county of good roads was so great that that sum of money, if it 

 were obtainable, \vould be well spent for the purpose. The 

 City of Belfast was certainly much to blame for permitting 

 stones of the size produced to be used ; he had often seen 

 similar stones on the roads and wondered how they had got 

 there. He thought Mr. Brown's machine most ingenious and 

 suggested that Mr. Brown should show, after the lecture, how 

 the machine could be folded up into a reasonable compass. 

 Twelve feet was, no doubt, an inconvenient length for carriage, 

 but Mr. Brown had so contrived that the machine would fold up 

 into half that length. 



The President, while joining in the expressions of thanks to 

 Mr. Brown for this most interesting paper describing his very 

 ingenious appliance, said that in reference to the question of 

 road surfaces in Belfast, he thought they should not use square 

 setts so extensively. In some thoroughfares the noise was so 

 great that at times nothing else could be heard. 



Mr. Brown, in replying, said he agreed very cordially with 



