RURAL AMENITIES.
[TO THE EDITOR. OR THE " SPECTATOR."' SER,—It is welcome news that a campaign is about to be insti- tuted by the Underground Railway and 'bus and tramway companies against the ill-mannered holiday-makers who defile our streets and parks, and the countryside generally.by littering them with waste paper, cigarette boxes, fruit skins, and broken glass. But one cannot overlook the fact that the omnibus companies are themselves among the worst offenders. They issue, yearly, millions of multi-coloured tickets which they do not collect, for which they provide no receptacles, and which become useless the moment a passenger leaves one of their vehicles. By so doing the companies actually foster the bad habit which they now deplore. Similarly, the L.C.C., who periodically complain of the litter left in the public parks and heaths under their control, particularly after they have been used for games on. a. Saturday afternoon, apparently make no attempt to secure that the clubs to whom pitches are let leave them as they find them—in a tidy condition.
If the omnibus companies would but provide, in a conspicuous and convenient place on their vehicles, a receptacle for their useless tickets, and would put up notices requesting passengers to use them, they would do much to check this growing nuis- ance. Why the Commissioner of Police licenses vehicles =pro- vided with such fitments passes my comprehension. Similarly, if Parks Committees everywhere would make it a condition of letting that each athletic club which enjoys the privilege of a reserved pitch on. ground belonging to the general public should, as they so easily could, leave it and its immediate surroundings in a tidy condition at the close of play, they also would be doing something to bring about a better condition of things. The habit of spitting in public places has been effectu- ally checked, but only by the adoption of practical measures to stamp it out. Merely talking about and deploring these preventible nuisances will not suffice.—I am, Sir, &o.,
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