LONDON AS IT IS TO-DAY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4309, 26 August 1921, Page 1

LONDON AS IT IS TO-DAY

AMAZING FACTS. SOME WONDER OF THE WORLD'S CAPITAL. Remarkable facts and figures relvealing the immensity of London and the ramifications of its administration are given in the “Municipal Year-Book”' for ~ 1921-22.,, There are really several Londons—all of them equally wonderful. There is London, the administrative county (117 square miles), whose population (1911 was 4,522,961. Then there is the Greater London of the police area. This goes as far as to Epsom. It contains 520 square miles and a population of 7,252,963. There is also the water London, extending over an area of .538 square miles, a constituency represented by 105 members of Parliament.

The Metropolitan Water Board, which took over the undertakings of eight companies, has 6488 miles of pipes and 62,288 public fire hydrpnr.;, and 48 storage and 86 service reservoirs, Where does the water come from to maintain a supply of 100,799 mil'lioii gallons a year! Most from the Thames and the Lea, but some frpni wells and springs. And the book tells us i-t is going to cost us more. London the City is a mere -673 acres When the City sleeps it has a population of 14,447, or thereabouts ; when the City is awake its noonday inhabitants total 364,000, plus a million entering within the boundaries'' every day.

The City Corporation has power to remodel its constitution ; it is a legislative as well as a deliberate body, and the City is a,county i? itself,.so that the jurisdiction of the County Council stops at its boundaries, v Further, the City Corporation's powers go outside its .own area. Ft. maintains markets in various parts of .the Metropolis and open spaces like Epping Forest, Wanstead Park, and Burnham Beeches, There is no council like it;’and it is no wonder that some of the intelligent foreigners to whom these things are explained find English local government complicated.

Among the suburban boroughs Wandsworth must be favourite. It has got Tooting Common,- Putney Heath, Streatham Common, and Clapham Common within its generous boundaries. Its girth is such that despite the great growth of recent years the'people of -Wandsworth live not more than 37 ,to the acre. This is about 13 to'the acre more than in thinly populated Greenwich, but very comfortable 'compared with the 149 to the acre of poor little Bethnal Green. Shoreditch, with over 100,60) ■to its hare square mile, has but 6% acres of open space left, Southwark boasts about a dozen, Islington 40, Stepney 49, and Fulham 68. On London’s doorstep will be- found the biggest of the urban districts, almost certainly. z Willesden, with a population said- to be 171,000, can hardly be challenged. It is. also the richest of the uTban districts in point of rateable value.

Willesden’s council claims to be the van everywhere. It supplies electricity, maintains hospitals and openair swimming baths, a coroner’s court and mortuary, a motor fire brigade, cemeteries, x parks, and allotments. There were women health visitors working in Willesden 18 years ago. All this, and yet people grumble at rates of only 15s 3d in the £ I The spread of mechanical, fleets is among the romances of recent municipal endeavour. London gave a leadhere, for Chiswick Urban Council placed the first order for steam waggons for municipal purposes in 1897. The" London County Council’s first motor fire-engine dates back to 1909. Now the petrol-driven engine holds the field everywhere. Where a council cannot afford a motor fire-engine it is the custom ‘o hire a motor vehicle of some kind to tow the engine when required. Marylebohe has the largest motor fleet in London, its 32 vehicles including 26 for refuse collecting and street washing.

The census just taken will 'clear up many disputes as to relative populations.

Islington now leads among the metropolitan boroughs with the present official figure of 327,403.. Wandsworth comes next with 311,000. But it claims to have a population over 350,000 and expects to take the lead aifiong the London boroughs when the census figures are disclosed.