THE DESTRUCTION OF BEAUTY.
[To THE EDITOR of sax " SPECTATOR.") SIB,—In your interesting and suggestive article under the above-named heading in the Spectator of March 25th, I am glad to see you take up the position that it is out of the question stopping coal mining in Kent because it will dis- figure the country, and that the right way to meet the difficulty is to control the undertakings in such a way as will mitigate, if not remove, the evil. However, I cannot help feeling that the most important evil of all has been overlooked by the writer of the article—and that is, the effect of smoke. Where coal mining is carried on, fuel is so cheap that no attempt at economy is ever made, so that volumes of dense black smoke will be seen coming from the chimney-shafts in mining districts, with the result that all vegetation is blighted and buildings as well as other works of art are damaged. Of course such smoke is forbidden by law, but those whose duty it is to put the law in force will seldom do so. There is a common and ignorant idea that the suppression of smoke is bad for trade, whereas, with coal at the ordinary price, it is an economy to burn coal without driving off the best part of it up the chimney. But even if it were more costly to the manufacturer to burn his fuel without making a smoke, he ought to be made to do so, because the smoke which he makes causes his neighbours considerable loss. The manner in which the Coal Smoke Abatement Society has so largely reduced the smoke in London shows that the right course to follow would be for the public in the neighbourhood of coal mines to join together and form a society which would prosecute any mine which produced smoke, and I should like to be permitted to add that I hope they would support their society more liberally than the London society is being supported.—I am, Sir, &o.,
TI(ACIERAY TURNER.
Westbrook, Goclalming.
[Assuredly the men of Kent will not fail to set in motion the law to preserve the garden of England from the contami- nation of a smoke-laden atmosphere. The gas solution of the problem urged by a correspondent last week is surely worth pressing on coal owners.—En. Spectator.]
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