LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL'S RECORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL'S RECORD.

REVIEW OF LAST YEAR'S WORK. The last meeting of the London County Council was mostly taken up with the annual address of the chairman on the work of the past year. Mr. Dickinson said that the meetings of Council numbered 35, while those of committees were 646, and sub-committees 790. In 1898-9 the Council undertook works involving a gross capital expenditure of £7,000.000. It had in the year under review practically involved itself in liability for a gross capital expenditure of over £511,000,000. The chief items of this sum were:—(l) New main sewers, costing about three millions (but of this only one and ahalf millions have been actually decided upon) ; (2) tunnel under the Thames, two millions ; (3) improvements, three millions; (4) artisans' dwellings, one and a-half milions ; and (5) tramways and light railways, one and a-half millions. A part of this expenditure will ultimately be returned to the Council through the improved value of saleable land or through the remunerative nature of the undertakings in which it was invested. The ratepayer of the next few years would be called upon to bear almost the whole of the charges incidental to this expenditure. The money actually expended in the year 1899-1900 on capital account was £1,952,876, a sum slightly below that of the previous year. This addition to the liability had brought up the net debt of the Council on the 31st of March, 1900, to £23,031,516 0s 3d, which is about five and ahalf millions larger than the debt taken over from their predecessors in 1889. Of this additional debt, two and a-half millions is allocated to remunerative objects, leaving the increase of the Council's debt at a sum slightly under three millions. The net result of the Council's work during the eleven years of its existence as felt by the London ratepayer had been an addition to his rates in respect of debt of a sum of only .43d, or less than £d in the £. The total amount of sewage treated was 79,382,750,830 gallons, but the actual expenditure on maintenance was £5000 less. It had been decided to undertake 16 important improvements, at a net cost of £2,047,840. In 1889 the parks and open spaces numbered 40; they now numbered 91, while the cost had increased from £52,000 to £114,000. For several years the Housing Committee had conducted its proceedings with caution. But late events nad forced the Council to the conclusion that the duty of seeing after the domestic welfare of the people must be vigorously undertaken. In a city where 800,000 persons lived in overcrowded abodes, where public and private clearances were annually ejecting from their homes some 20,000 pooi, it was clear that the municipality must either leave the question alone or else act with vigour and resolution. It was now taking in hand building schemes upon a large scale, and the municipality would own and manage these houses. Next to the Housing Committee, the work of the Highways Committee would have most influence upon the problem of housing, for they bid fair to revolutionise the whole system of London locomotion. For the first time the committee was able to report the working of the.Council's own tramways in the South of London, which resulted in a profit of £42,000 for the relief of rates. They hoped within a short time to establish electric tramways on some 115 miles of lines. There were 336 places licensed_for public entertainments, giving accommodation for 400,000 persons. They believed that the policy they had adopted with regard to Sunday concerts was right