It is too often presumed that the problem of rural
preserv- ation is purely aesthetic,' and the fallacy does harm. Nothing checks the movement more than a feeling among local coun- cillors that faddy sentimentalists interfere with business to no real puipnse. They do not realize that here, as in most cases, true beauty is founded on utility. The thin red line of houses, fitting no plan or central scheme, has an evil influence on the most practical concerns of social life. Sanitation is difficult, costly, and bad. Children are as far as possible removed from school and the roads are burdened to their maximum. The drought has brought out the insufficiency of the water supply. Many other sanitary evils will be em- phasized when the hastily constructed houses begin to decay and the subsoil (as happens already on some strata) shifts enough to spoil the alignment of the drains.
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