JOHN BULL'S BIG PLAYGROUND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 49

JOHN BULL'S BIG PLAYGROUND.

Wjikrk Half a Sovereign a Minute is Spent in Pleasure.

In view of the efforts now being made to obtain the Crystal Palace as a national property, it will be interesting to give readers some facts and figures about this magnificent structure — without doubt the most popular place of entsrtaiament in the whole world. Since the Queen opened the Palace in 1854 it has been visited by over 100,000,000 people — mdre than the populations of the whole o£ America and Great Britain combined. It is no exaggeration to say that the Palace is one of the wonders of .the empire, and the description applied to it in the heading of this article is literally correct. . It Is indeed a national playground— a city under glass. You may walk for miles under crystal roof, gazing on new wonders every minute, but you cannot exhaust the interest of this world-famed wonderland. The building itsslf is a miracle of modern industry. From one end to the other is nearly throe-quarters of a mile, the sky being visible all the way. The glass used in the whole of the Palace would weigh 500 tons, and cover 25 acres ; and if the panes were placed end to end they would stretch from London to Paris, and there would still be enough glass left to pave a boulevard one mile long and 12yds wide. Fifteen hundred men could not lift the bolts and rivet's used in tke erection of the Palace, not to speak of 100 tons of nails hammered into the building with a thousand- hammers. The iron frametfork of the Palace weighs 0600 tons, and from end to end runs a lutmel containing engines and boilers innumerable. This part of the structure is' not open to the public, bub it is as remarkable in its way as anything in the Palace. The enormous network of supports is a wonderful eight to see, yet bo symmetrical ia the plan that a coin, dropped through the floor in any part of the Palace can be almost certainly found underneath in an amazingly short sp%ce cf time, Here are 20 miles of pipes, weighing 2000 tons ; and here, too, 8000 tons of coal are unloaded every year. The Big Ben of the Palace is one of th« wonders of London. It has the largest dial ever made, being over 13yds across and over 12ydB round. The bands weigh nearly a quarter of a ton, and the minute hand is over Gyds long, moving half an inch at every beat of the pendulum. The distance travelled by the point ot this hand ia about three miles a week. The cost of " running " the Crystal Palace is L3SU a day, which works ont at over half a sovereign— or, to be exact, 11s Bd— for every minute it is open. There are somo minute?, of course, when the expenditure is much more than lls Bd, and times when it ia much leas, but that is the average. A fireworks night is the meet expensive night in the year. The thousands who witness the briiiiant displays of fireworks for which the Palace is noted will perhaps tie surprised to know that while they gaze upon them money i 3 being burned away a^/ 'the' rate oi'lAQ.a, minute ; bat so it is. . The great-shell of fire with which the display generally closes costs about L 5, and the whole of the half-hour's display costs about L3OO, bringing the fireworks bill for four months up to about I L6OOO. Musics is another costly i'ena. The concerts and entertainments last year cost L 13.000, not reckoning LSOOO for dramatic and oparatic performances. About 800 concerts and popular entertainments are given every year, and it may be said that every song sung and every piece played costs the Palace authorities considerably over a Bove-' reign. Ordinary attractions, such as shows, fetes, sporting displays, the museum and picture galleries, &c, cost Ll5O a day (not reckoning Sundays), and LIOO a week is spent on the gardens and the parks which are 200 acres in extent. It costs LIOOO n year to keep the Palace and grounds clean, and the heaps of rubbish picked up and destroyed every day would a3tound most people. Another LBO a week goes in rates, taxes, and insurance; L3O a day is spent in repairs, and L3O a week goes in heating the Palace. Besides these matters, the weekly expenditure includes such items as L3O for water engines and waterworks, L2O for i police, and LI 5 for the Palace Fire Brigade. Every night in the " season " 50,000 fairy lights sparkle in the grounds or in the Palace, and the lighting bill runs up to LSO a week. i The refreshment contractor pays L3OO a ; week for the privilege of supplying refreshments to the millions of visitors ; from which fact the reader may judge of the enormous sums which change hands every day at the buffets and tables. There is a mile of beer i barrels and wine bottles in the cellars, tha stock of wine rarely getting much lower than & ouartar of a million. Six thousand bottle*

of aerated waters are consumed every day, -or nearly two millions a year. It costs LBOO a year to wash the bottles used in the refreshment department, nine men being constantly employed in this work. The bottles are washed by machinery, at the rate of 1000 an hour.

If the visitor is too hot in the summer and ' can obtain permission to visit the icehouse, be will find 700 tons of ice to keep him cool. r A whole army of hungry men might live for weeks in the larder, where hams hang along hundreds of yards of racks and tons of food Df all kinds are always in stock. However great may be the rush to the Palace, there is no likelihood of the china stores giving way. 'JChere are upwards of 1,000,000 plates and 8000 dlsheß, 10,000 forks and spoons, 20,000 knives, and 22,000 glasses.

Should the Palace become the property of the nation, it will probably be sold for threequarters of a million sterling. From the high towers, one of which has 400 steps, and each of which contains 800 tons of iron, ona has a magnificent view of six counties, aud some of tb9 grounds are higher than the cross on the dome- of St. Paul's. The maxim that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy " is trae of natioas as well as of men, and as a national playground for Great Britain the Crystal Palace would be well worth its price, and would indeed ba hard to beat.