THE SUPREMACY OF LONDON IN DANGER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2820, 9 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE SUPREMACY OF LONDON IN DANGER.

It may scum inuredili'm to most people that London, with its livi! million inhabitant.--, -should In: in ila"'.;;T o! falling fiom its present Miputiority over the other k'riiit cities of the world. In our own day it. H-iwis hardly to .supp.w.e thai it ever will so fall, lint it is not at nil improvable that iiofore another cuntiny has passed, London will only be the second city of the British Empire. The completion of the Manchester Ship Canal will work wonders throughout the district which lies between that oily and Liverpool. From Liverpool to Manchester will run continuous quay*, on which will he discharged and loaded merchandise from all parts of the world. Around these quays will spring up streets, squares, manufactories, mills, offices— all that goes to make a great city. It will he impossible to say where Liverpool begins or Manchester ends. This vast city will be the greatest and richest ovr-r known to tlio world —at any rate, since history began. Some, people may laugh at thin as meie foolishness. But let us turn to statistics, which, like all other facts, are awkward things to set aside. The present population of Manchester and Sull'urd is over (j(W,000 ; the population of Liverpool h nearly 000,000 Along the lino of the Ship Canal are crowiied centres of industry, which help to swell the numbers in no mean degree. It may safely he said that the present population between, and including, Liverpool and Manchester, is two millions. Now, no one will deny that with the completion of the Ship Canal this number will bo. largely increased. And how will tha extra population increase ? Let us turn to statistics ag.vin. The entire population of Middlesex in 1801 was 8-15,000 ; in 18'>], it was 1,180,000; in ISSI it was 3,000,000. The population of London (Middlesex and Surrey sides) in ISol was ■2,000,000; it is now .5,000,000. The population of Lancashire in 1801 was 000,000; it is now close upon 4,000,000. Gniuti.d a (treat influx of trade to the Livorpool-M.•luuliostt'i'-C'inal district, the present population will increase from •2,000,000 to 10,000,000. And the trade will not bo wanting. Then; is no place in the whole world so well fitted in every way to become tho centre of the commercial universe as tho district under notiee. London, compared with it, is out of the way. To the LiverpoolManchester of the future will run all the great railways of the world, and all the great shipping lines will have their home in its midst. Gigantic docks and storehouses, such as engineers hardly dream of, will open out from the cnuiil. It is within an hour's run of tho great woollen districts, within three hours of all the great coal and mineral fields. A great line of steamers, specially constructed, will bring to it every hour of the day the produce of America to be distributed amount the teeming millions of Europe. A great Trans-Continental lino of railway will puss from it across England, throuah the Channel Tunnel, across Europe, and over the Russian Empire, into thy farthest hounds of niauymilliourd China and. India. Tiio nuiiCS Liverpool and Manchester will have to be abolished, and tho new city called Metropolis. It may bo that London will always remain the home of the arts and sciences, and that politics will Mill find a restinif-pl ice at Westminister. London will bo our histori-i city —tho city of culture, fashion, and intellect. But who ever lives long enough will find that the great city on the hanks of the Mersey will be the commercial city of the future —Tit Bit.".