PERILS BY LAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 1091, 24 May 1871, Page 2

PERILS BY LAND.

To the Editor of tlie Taranaki Herald. Sir, — As a night walker may I draw your attention to the wretched state of oar footpaths. I much prefer perusing the " testimony of tho rocks" to actual contact with them, as piled in the thoroughfare. A trip over a pile of stones, and a cut nose or chin is not the kind of testimony most likely to lead my thoughts favourably towards geology, and smarting under the pain, one is not particularly anxious to ascertain to what period the stone belongs that proves so much harder than one's epidermis, albeit, somewhat pachydermal. Suppose one a statistician, and inclined to think over Mr. Fox's figures anent the Permissive Bill, and its effects on the Customs revenue, by thoughts suggested in passing over the footpath opposite the Taran'iki Custom House, umler Mount Eliot, is one's mind likely to bo able to come to any clearer opinion, when the slippery and uneven state of said footpath precipitates one headlong into the earth's upper crust, or mud, my thoughts are generally made thicker, more muddy in fact, and, as a solace, I practically dissent from the principles of the Premissive Bill by adjourning to the nearest Inn. " Doing the Devon Line," too, is not pleasant when one, instead of the level footpath, finds himself in a water channel, cut through the footpath, by reason of tho proper drain channel not being kept clear. See to it gentlemen of the Town Road Board, for wooden legs are not cheap. — I am, &c, Peripatetic.