COUNTRY LIFE
DWELLERS by the Chiltern rivers, such as the Mimram, lament the disappearance of their upper reaches. Others by such rivers as the Lea and Gade lament their pollution and the absence of an efficient effort to prevent it. Pollution is reported also on the most scien- tifically managed and not the least interesting of all our rivers, the sluggish Nene, from whose banks our English language first spread. The waters along those low, flat districts of Eastern England need continuous management, and the River Nene Catchment Board is a model. Its published maps and photographs are afso models. The delightfully named Dog-in-a-doublet lock and sluices just below Peterborough are worth a pilgrimage by anyone interested either in water conservation or the opposite. Now this Board, which has done wonders for husbandry as well as the river itself (chiefly by drainage and support of banks), has no direct control over pollution, though I believe it greatly desires such additional powers. So we are in this position : the authority , that has power, such as the Lea Com- missioners, does not exercise it, and the authority which would beneficently exercise it has not the power. "Save our rivers" is a plea that might be more energetically preached abroad by the else most efficient body the Council for the Preservation of Rural England.
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