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15
improvements, so far as the means at their disposal
will allow, and as no deviations from existing
systems have ever been made without ample proof
of their advisability, there is little probability of any
further alteration being made unless the same rigid
investigation precedes the decisions at which they
will arrive.
In addition to the maintenance of the
"Permanent way" of the roads the Vestry have
been called upon to consider the question of safety
to those who are on foot; four Foot-Passenger
Refuges have been constructed at points, or
crossings, where such safeguards were required.
The selection of such spots involves a great amount
of care, as regards the cost, which in itself is not
very formidable, but as it affects the wear and
tear of the roadway in the immediate vicinity,
each Refuge involves in itself a kind of rent to
maintain not the refuge but the immediate surface
of the adjacent road. Perhaps if this fact was
more generally understood it would be an answer
to opinions sometimes expressed, or entertained,
that the Vestry are, or have been dilatory in their
erection where they seemed to be most required.
Setting aside the question of reckless driving,
which is often caused by boys entrusted with vehicles
from which their age should preclude them, the
traffic of the streets of London is, under the most
favourable circumstances, a most formidable question
and should almost be called a problem, or rather