XXIV. J HAYDON CARDEW. 



towns, although I am happy to assert that in respect of 

 the public gardens, the country towns in some instances 

 lead the way. I was greatly struck, when spending a few 

 months lately in New Zealand, with their ideas of street 

 ornamentation and beautification by means of flowers and 

 shrubs. Any odd corner of vacant land or impracticable 

 street is there converted into a spot of beauty and a delight 

 to the eye with beautiful flower gardens ; the flowers being 

 generally chosen for their brilliancy of colouring, so as to 

 relieve the dinginess of the surroundings. Nearly all our 

 streets and public places are harsh and unlovely, the 

 atmosphere is polluted with the outpourings from many 

 chimneys of enormous volumes of sooty smoke, our 

 thoroughfares and footpaths are dirty and unkempt, 

 clouds of dust sweep through them, and the eyes and senses 

 are harassed where otherwise they might be charmed and 

 rested by congenial surroundings. 



In all Australian towns it must be admitted that there 

 is room for improvement to make life safer, pleasanter and 

 happier. The poorer parts of these towns from which the 

 dwellers are unable to get away to seaside or mountain 

 resorts, and in which they have to spend all their lives, 

 should be first attended to, by securing to them clean and 

 healthy surroundings, and giving them a few beauty spots 

 to gaze upon. 



As regards the sanitation of country towns, we all know 

 of the discomforts attending a visit to a country town by 

 those used to the sanitary conveniences of the city, and 

 the feelings of horror and disgust engendered by the sudden 

 change; and yet, thousands of our fellow countrymen, 

 with their wives and children, daily run the gauntlet of 

 typhoid, diphtheria, and enteritis, quite regardless of the 

 teaching of modern sanitary science. 



