THE PRIDE OF CITIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18897, 20 December 1924, Page 34 (Supplement)

THE PRIDE OF CITIES.

NOTABLE BRITISH TOWNS. In these days, any town that has less than one-tenth of its inhabitants unemployed is apt to think itself well off. So High Wycombe really has something to brag about with only 146 people registered as unemployed out of a population of 20,000. That was her state in September last, for, in. spit 5 of the general decline in British industries, there is still a tremendous demand for Wycombe's principal production—namely, high-class furniture. Another place which can put in a similar claim for recognition is Irlam, near Manchester. She has hardly any poor, and in one recent, year her total' expenditure on relief was less than £5 a week, despite her population being between ton and twelve thousand. Bradford, the centre of the great woollen trade, claims to produce more millionaires in proportion to her population than any other city in England. But Bradford, alas! has many poor and many unemployed. The most sober town in England, is. Saffron, Walden. With ;. population of 16.000, this flourishing place has hardly nriv prosecutions for drunkenness. In 1920. twelve months elapsed without a single one of her inhabitants being charged with over-indulgence in alcohol. Swindon has an almost equally wonderful record for sobriety. Even more amazing is the record of Fenny Drayton, in Leicestershire, where the village constable was driven to complain that for a whole year not a single offence of any kind had been committed in the parish. Kensington claims, to be the eWnest, borough in England. She spent .1170.000 last year in keeping her streets scoured and polished.