THE GRIT FIEND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 307, 31 December 1909, Page 6

THE GRIT FIEND.

Melbourne has had for many years to pay the penalty of civic greatness by tolerating with, the best grace posrsible the vagaries of the dust fiend. The names of the different methods for the extirpation of the .nuisance that have been tried are legion, and none so far hay© been even partially successful in affording relief. A period of blank despair superyened upoa demonstration of the futility of the> best laid plans of the past, and the conviction gradually dawned upon the leal citizens of Melbourne town that the dust, like the poor, was destined ever to be with them. , As far back as 1908, the City Coucil adopted a resolution inviting the other municipal bodies in and around Melbourne to send delegates to a conference to consider the most effective means of checking the dust nuisance. The first meeting of the conference, which was largely attended, was held on December 9th last year. The proceedings lasted less than half an hour, a subcommittee being apponted to go Into the matter and report later. The weighty question having thus been disposed of, the conference adjourned for afternoon tea at the invitation .ox 1 the Lord Mayor, and promptly dismissed a distressing consideration frdnt. its municipal mind. The weeks lengthened into months, summer gave place to winter; spring was bora anew, and finally summer came again. A year had passed, and still no report was furnished. At length, stung into activity by the caustic jibes of anonymous newspaper correspondents, and the angry vituperations of business people, the sub-committee hastily summoned the conference to learn the result of its lengthy deliberations. Tree planting and tar spreading were suggested as being, in the-opinion of the committee, "the most suitable methods of checking the dust. And already practical steps have been taken by the various municipalities to give effect to the recommendations. With so excellent an example as that of one of the largest cities in the world to influence its activities, the municipal authorities of Blenheim cannot err very disastrously by pursuing the policy of tarring the r principal thoroughfares thafe has recently been adopted. Apparently there is no royal road to scotching the dust fiend—no waving of a fairy'swand, no chemical miracles to bei wrought. He must bo stifled with good honest tar, and be kept in tarrj; subjection. :