On the more particular subject of electrical development in relation
to the appearance, not the comfort, of the country, the C.P.R.E. has just issued one of the most useful of its leaflets. Pleas for protection from the ugliness of electrifica- tion are continually reaching the Council, generally too late to make action possible. This little pamphlet (which will be sent free on application, if a stamp is enclosed for postage) gives all salient facts and advice. It is particularly illuminating on the place of the County Council, whose country planning powers give a good deal more influence, even with the Ministry itself, than is generally realized. The great latticed standards that carry electric cables may be almost beautiful, may almost always be inoffensive, if the simple laws of aesthetics be observed. In some places, especially the New Forest, they have been gratuitously dis- regarded. On the whole, the gravamen of the charge against distributing companies and those technically, if grimly, called undertakers," is that they blazon standards in the eyes of 'humble communities to whom they refuse to grant the benefit of light or power.
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