BEWILDERING LONDON

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1926, Page 4

BEWILDERING LONDON

If you would turn a dishonest .-.lulling, wager with some of your friends mi tlie number ol people there are in the citv of London. They are almost

! certain in say seven millions, or .something like that, whereas the total is a trifling 13,709, and they are mostly caretakers. The catch lies in the fact, as some will know, hut as some won’t, thi.it the city of London is exceedingly limited in extent, and is made up of . the great hanking, insurance, shipping I and business area, with few residen- ! ces and those only flats. It was not always so. At the beginning of flic ! I.9th century there were 128.129 peoi pie living there. But the trend has been outwards, and there are few men living in the districts which 125 years ago wore regarded as almost the hack of the beyond. Baris these days is sometimes described as a suburb of London. Will there he such a word as “remote” in /.mother 125 years? By dipping at random into the pages of a vivid orange-coloured hook hearing the arresting title “.Statistical Abstract for London, 1915-21,” you discover the figures on which the above statements are bated, in .addition to a fund of other fascinating things. The work is liy the clerk of the London Council.

The population of London is give as 7,(179,218. including 52,200 Iron Ireland (the number is increasin' every year), 10,017 from the rest o tlie British Empire. 20.92,3 Poles 29,608 Buxianx. 11.104 Frenchmen 10.991 Italians, and 5713 Germans. ENORMOUS WEALTH.

The wetilth of the city is enormous The rateable value exceeds £50.000,030. including the city £0.718,624.

You have to think of London in millions. The travel figures are colossal. Last year 3,325,000,000 were carried on the trains, trams and buses, divided as 'follows: Trains, 872,000.000; triims 908.000.000; ’buses. 1,485,000,000. There were at that time a million and a half miles of telephone wire in the L.C.C. area, and more than eight million calls were made in the year. This huge traffic is handled by 7051 “hello girls” sind 1562 men—not too many for a continuous service. The post office also had a busy time, handling 20,000.000 telegrams. 45,000.000 parcels, and 20,000.000 postal orders.

Tfie value of tlie food imported was £lB/ .815.000, tlie value of the raw ; materials £80,859,000, and of the . manufactured goods £100.277.000. . Statistics are dull things, but these . almost take your breath away. You , wonder where this London is going to end. It shows no sign yet of arrested growth. It is stretching its limbs with all the vigour of a healthy infant north, south. east .and west. When it reaches the full growth of maturity, it will he the first of the world’s seven wonders.

PEOPLE AND WEALTH