ABOUT THE CITY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 6

ABOUT THE CITY

INTERESTING BOOKLETS

FILMED WITH FACTS AND FIGURES. ,

The Wellington City Year-book for the year Ist April, 1923; to 31st March, 1924, has now been published, "and contains in a hundred and eighty pages a surprising amount of information in letterpress and tabular form as to Wellington as.it is to-day, each department's activities being treated in separate sections. The pocket-size guide book is very brightly illustrated with scenes o* the city and suburbs, the beaches and playgrounds, the wharves, the: water supply, the tramway services, the milk depot, the Zoo, the city's workshops, and so on. Some of the illustrations are incorporated in the year-book for the first time this year, arid . altogether are ' a good selection.

A'concise little history of the city is incorporated in the, year-book, the growth of the; town being traced from 1841, when Wellington was a borough and not a very big one, but the first borough in New Zealand for all that, and from that basis the growth of the borough, town board, town, and city is traced until to-day the population is stated at 112,070, the'capital value of city property at £30,094,093, the value ol improvements at over £15,000 000 and the area of the city at 15,951 acreß, of which 1613 acres are set aside in reserves. There are now—or there were when the figures were compiled forUhe year-book, which figure has been since increased by a hundred or tw 0 in all probability—2l,443 buildings in the city (m 1845 there were all told not 800 buddings within the city's boundaries), and the city roads and streets stretch out over 244 miles. The area of Greater Wellington is now 24^ square miles. A brief history is also given of the progress of the building up of that area by the'amalgamation of the adjacent boroughs of Melrose, Miramar, Karori, and Onslow.

A list of Mayors and councillors and city officers, past and >present, is published m the year-book, and also the names of officials, of other local bodies in the Wellington district, and of Consular representatives. of foreign nations resident in Wellington. The City Council has also now issued a neat little booklet dealing with the city milk supply under the title of "The Municipalisation of the Milk Supply " which booklet is intended for the information of other cities rather than that of Wellington itself. Wellington may quite rightly claim to be in a position to give such information because it was first in, the field the.world over. The booklet, which is also excellently illustrated, deals with every aspect of the work of the council's depot officers, remarking not alone upon the work as it is now successfully carried out, but'also upon the early and not always thoroughly successful stages of : the municipal. milk business, thereby affording to other' towns, whether in New Zealand or overseas, a . guide in which are shown not alone the good points to be sought after, but also those points to be avoided. The municipal milk business is a complicated one, but in this booklet it certainly appears that the subject has been remarkably fully handled. Inquiries have been received by the Mayor and members of the Milk Committee all parts'of the world as to the success of Wellington's venture, and the booklet, setting out facts and figures as it does, ia: an. answer that may,, now be made, available, to those inquirers, English,, Australian, American, Canadian, and Continental.