BEWILDERING LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 80, 6 April 1926, Page 15

BEWILDERING LONDON.

PEOPLE AND WEALTH. |

THINKING IN MILLIONS.

STILL STEETCHES-G ITS LIMBS,

If you would turn a dishonest shilling,' vrith some of your friends on the number of people there are in the City ; of London. They are almost certain to 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 tno'vv, but as some won't, that the City of London is exceedingly limited in extent, and is made up of the great banking,; insurance, shipping and business area, j with few residences and those only flats. It was not always so. At the beginning of the 19th century there were 128,129 people living there. But the trend has been outwards, and there are city men living in districts which 125 years ago were regarded as almoFt the back of beyond. Paris these days is sometimes described as a suburb of London. Will there be such a word as "remote" in

another 125 years 1

By dipping at random into the pages of a vivid orange-coloured book bearing the arresting title "Statistical Abstract for London, 1915-24,"' you discover the figures on which the above statements are based, in addition to a fund of other fascinating things. The work is by the Clerk of the London County CounoiL

The population of London is given as ",679,215, including 52.206 from Ireland (the number is increasing every year), 46,617 from the rest of the British Empire, 26,923 Poles, 29,66S Russians, 11,10-4 Frenchmen, 10,994 Italians, and 5743 Germans.

Enormous Wealth. The wealth of the city is enormous. The rateable value exceeds £50,000,000, including the City £0,748,624. 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, S72.000,000; trams, 96S,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 500 million calls were made in the year. This huge traffic is handled by 7051 "hello girls" and 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.

The value of the- food imported - was £157,815.000, the vajue of the raw materials £50.559,000, and of the manufactured goods £100,227,000.

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, Bouth, east, and west. When it reaches the full growth of maturity, it. will be the first of the world's seven wonders.