A LONDON OF 16.000.000.

Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 80

A LONDON OF 16.000.000.

To what extent can London 6afely giow, and what will happen to its inhabitants if the process of growth is left to "muddle ' and subjected to no intelligent supervision? The question is. raised by the estimate put forward by the experts of the London Water Board that the population of the metropolis will have reached 8,000,000 by 1916 and 16,000,000 by 1960. This estimate is in general accord with the advance of London's population during the nineteenth century. Some years ago Mr Welton, a well-known statistician, showed that the increase in that period had been roughly sixfold— from 1,060,000 .to 6,500,000. Were this advance, maintained at the same rate the figures of 16,000,000 might be reached even before 1960. A London of this size would cover all Middlesex and Surrey, and much of Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Berkshire. For the past 50 years there has been a well-marked tendency on the part of the well-to-do in London to migrate from the central districts to the outer fiinge, where the country is near at hand. Yet as the greater London of the future extends and spreads its tentacles, there must come a halt, for the reason that the business centres of London will be beyond convenient reach, even though the speed of travel be enormously accelerated, and the amenities of the country will have vanished. Yet it would be unsafe to foretell returning fashion and popularity for the abandoned central districts. The larger London grows, the more its atmosphere must be contaminated. To prevent this contamination of the air, German cities have adopted building plans which provide areas entirely open or covered only with low buildings in the quarters from which the wind generally blows, thus giving currents of fresh air access to the heart of the city:' In tthe London of to-day, the River Thames acts as a gigantic ventilator ; yet if the city grows rapidly, steps must be taken sooner or later to introduce the German system. Wide streets would help to give such air passages ; though it is to be feared that their cost would be prohibitive. Another fact is certain, tb^t the London of 16,000,000 souls will have to find some novel means of solving the traffic problem. Even if we suppose the speed of each vehicle to have immensely increased, the horse to have completely vanished, md relief to the motor traffic to have been afforded through the growing use of aeroplanes, it is probable that even the widest roads would be insufficient to provide accommodation for the host of vehicles. There are, however,, factors which must intervene sooner or later to pievent an indefinite increase* in the population of London. First and foremost is the matter of water supply. There will be no outside area that London will be able to tap to meet its growing needs. The last of the Welsh water-bearing areas will have been appropriated to supply the needs of the growing population of South Wales long before 1960. Nor is it only in the south that water will be the difficulty. Throughout Great Britain, even in the north, the question of water- supply is becoming one of urgency. This, so far as we can see, will be an insurmountable obstacle to the indefinite growth of the population of London.