COST OF NEW SAN FRANCISCO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9099, 27 May 1908, Page 3

COST OF NEW SAN FRANCISCO.

Over a billion dollars—more than £250,000,000 —'is to bo expended in the next five years, apportioned among the various improvements that are designed to rehabilitate San Francisco. That is equal to £175 a year for every present inhabitant of itha Sunset City. In the first six mo iths after the fire over £15,000,(h)Q was spent, despite the crippled and disturbed condition of the channels of trade and industry. This amount included the structures -definitely contracted for, tho3e on which work had been commenced and those .thai; wern completed within that time, as well as the refitting the great stsel frame buildings that had survived the flames. Six thousand temporary business buildings arose, row on row, and eigne thousand cheap cottages provided pheasant and cheerful hornet for a part of the C2.it inhabiting refugee-. Tho disaster has had the effect of accelerating all manner ot' improvements along the lines and termini of the three great railway companies. Thssa have all been forced to treble ... their carrying capacity. The extensive improvements which I they had been r.rjsecuting in a rather I leisurely manner are now bein> I ruahsd to completion in one-half the timj. The Western Pacific, a new transcontinental line that is hurrying its tracks towar.ls this promise.! land, has issued a call for ten thou - ai 1 additional mer. Imparts and, strangely enough, - exports too, have increased to an ex- , tthat shatters all the records of previous years. Alnm3t double the number of vessels are serving the p irt as at the corresponding date of the year before. The Customs receipts for the six m>nths ending October 1, 1906, were almost £1,000,000, compared with £700,000 for the same period in 1905, despite the fact that the terror of April gavo to that month but fourteen business days, and the following month could not be counted as normal. So flow toe fides of world commerce into the op?n portals of the Golden Gat. 1 , the Pillars of Hercules in the Westein World, and tin greatest trade outlet of ihe Father of Oceans. —Herman Scheffauer, in "The Fortnightly Review."