AN OPEN SPACE FOR DEPTFORD. 
51 
If, in round numbers, 120,000 people were to guarantee one 
shilling each, or 1,500,000 (rather more than one quarter the 
population of Greater London) one penny each, more than the 
remaining amount needed would be forthcoming, and the Hilly 
Fields would be saved to-morrow. 
We levy rates for the maintenance of our Board Schools and 
Public Libraries, from the conviction that both are necessary 
for the intellectual and, let it be hoped, for the moral well-being 
of the rising generation. Yet to save open spaces for the enjoy- 
ment of the surrounding inhabitants is an object just as praise- 
worthy, just as necessary — supremely so in a case like the 
present, in which the rescue of the Hilly Fields (to quote IMiss 
Hill again) “will benefit a district she has known well for some 
years, and which she considers more forlorn of all influences and 
agencies for good than anywhere she has laboured.” One would 
hardly care to promote the idea that a compulsory rate should 
be levied for the maintenance of open spaces as in the case of 
the above-mentioned institutions — Public Libraries and Board 
Schools; but it seems strange indeed that the Imperial Govern- 
ment, which yearly by vote of Parliament bestows thousands of 
pounds upon the maintenance of highly paid sinecures, should 
not long ago have shown its interest in the movement by 
directly aiding in the purchase of these ever-needed parks and 
recreation grounds. It would hardly be fair to institute a com- 
parison between two countries and two governments in many 
waj's so diverse as those of England and the United States of 
America, but surely the United States government showed a 
better appreciation of the principle when it handed over the 
territory now known as the Yellowstone National Park to be a 
gigantic playground for the American people. 
But the failings of a government do not absolve wealthy 
individuals from apathy in a matter like this, and many such 
must surel}^ be numbered among the readers of Miss Hill’s 
appeal. When we think how easily this appeal could have 
been already answered by a few who have more money than 
they know what to do with, their neglect of it means nothing 
less than failure of duty to their poorer fellow-citizens. At thfe 
same time all praise is due to the generous donors who b}^ their 
contributions have left so comparatively small a deficit to be made 
up. Yet all can help alike, poor as well as rich. But, as said above, 
if the thing is to be done it must be done with all speed, as “ the 
time when we shall have the option of purchase is just expiring.” 
The inhabitants of the streets and courts of Deptford need fresh 
air and change of scene just as much as the dwellers round our 
London parks. Let those (if there be any) who think otherwise 
reflect, and ask themselves whether the generation that is being 
reared in that crowded, sordid neighbourhood will be the worse 
or the better if the breezy expanse of the Hilly Fields continue 
such for ever. To that question there can be but one answer. 
Archibald Clarke. 
