THE PARKS OF SYDNEY. 



21 



permitted as a park boundary; where a close fence is 

 desired, it should be of overlapping weather-boards. Picket 

 fences are a compromise between the close fence and the 

 iron-railing. The diagram herewith shows at once how a 

 picket fence interferes 

 with people looking in- 

 to and out of a park. 



I am averse to a close 

 fence, as it is apt to 

 encourage untidiness. 

 Fences accumulate 

 rubbish and make 

 plants tender and un- 

 symmetrical. The rail- 

 ing enables people to 

 see into the dark cor- 

 ners, and rubbish and 

 badly grown plants, are 

 at once noticed. Close 

 fences enable bad char- Picket Fence Iron Rett Ling 



acters to conceal themselves. An open railing is a good 

 policeman. I am afraid that we are not sufficiently ad- 

 vanced yet for the abolition of the fence or railing, leaving 

 only a dwarf stone coping as in parts of America and England. 



A railing is looked upon by many people as contributing 

 an element of security, without which there can be no 

 enjoyment in a park. It keeps out stray or bolting animals 

 from the streets ; it also, renders protection of plants and 

 other park property more easy. America is often quoted 

 as the country where people respect their parks, but citizens 

 even in that country have still much to learn in regard to 

 the care of parks. The annual report of the Chief of 

 Engineers of the U.S. Army on the Washington parks is 

 pitiful reading, showing that human nature is much the 

 same in the United States as anywhere else. 



