1 MARCH 1946, Page 14

Use or Beauty ?

The controversy over the heightening of Ennerdale Lake has become a focus of the argumentative clash between the aesthetics and utilitarians. It may be useful as bringing out one general maxim too often disregarded. A scene of natural beauty should not be soiled in any way, if there is an alternative source of power. At Ennerdale, as in the question of purifying the River Tyne, both beauty and use may be reconciled if the extra expense is faced. In the one case an expensive underground drain would be necessary ; in the other the harnessing not of a lake but of streams. The question, as usual, is one of concrete alternatives, as well as of rival interests. Generally speaking, we are behindhand in the work of harnessing streams.