IRISH TOURIST DEVELOPMENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
have read the letter of Mr. Silo. G. Penney in your issue of September 3rd with much amusement and surprise. It is true that none of the cars of the company of which he is secretary have ceased running, but to say that there are only one or two soft patches in the road is, to say the least of it, an inexactitude. Let me, as a resident in the district, state the facts about the roads. The ears of the company have been running this season on all the possible roads in this district lying in the triangle Killarney, Glengasiff, Parknasilla. The state to which this heavy car traffic has brought the roads is Unspeakable. They are torn to bits, and holes and trenches are dug into them in all directions by the weight of the cars. The condition of the roads will soon drive all private motors from this part of the country, for no motorist who has any respect for his car will care to drive over our roads now. To do so at night is a positive danger, especially to cyclists.
To add to our troubles the Kerry County Council have bought a stone-crusher and a traction-engine which have been making a slow and tragi-comic progress from Xenmare to Sneem. The stone- crusher, which weighs, I am told, thirteen tons, embeds itself in the soft places of the road at frequent intervals. It was bought because the wiseacres of the Kerry County Council considered stone-breaking by hand to be too expensive. Comment is need less. This stone-crusher is the outcome of the state the tourist- cars have brought our roads to.
The question which interests the ratepayers is, Who is going to pay to restore our roads to what they were,—the best in Kerry,
and perhaps in Ireland F—I am, Sir, dae., A Rzstoitwr.
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