A MUNICIPAL STUDY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8790, 28 May 1890, Page 2

A MUNICIPAL STUDY.

There are few more remarkable proofs of the extraordinary interest taken, of late years especially, by intelligent Americana in matters relating to the social and intellectual life of their elder brothers across the Deep, than are to be found on the pages of those charming periodicals, The Cyn.tu.ry and Harper s Monthly. For example, in the former magazine, has been for some months appearing a series of deeply interesting and admirably illustrated articles on the Cathedrals of England. It has been truly a pleasure of uo common kind to gaze upon the faithful and graceful portraits of such dear and venerable friends, companions of days, alas ! for ever gone —as Westminster Abbey and York Minster; the Cathedrals of Salisbury, Lincoln, Norwich, Lichfield, Worcester, and Gloucester, sublime monuments of ages which in these architectural glories will not again be approached for all time. The poet does but utter the general feeling inspired by the spectacle of these majestic temples, when he exclaims: — « They dreamt not of a perishable home Who thus could build : be mine in hours of fear, Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here ; Or through the aisles of SVestminster to roam, Where bubbles butst, and folly's dancing foam Melts if it cross the threshold."

In the March number of The Century magazine, in addition to one of the abov» notices, devoted to the portraiture of Gloucester Cathedral, including the most finished and accurate illustrations it is possible to conceive of the unequalled beauties of its Lady Chapel and its cloisters, we are afforded a narrative hardly less attractive — albeit without pictorial illustrations — of yet another and different aspect of life in the British Islands. The article in question entitled " Glasgow, a Municipal Study," contains so much information that isinteresting and even valuable as to tempt us to offer a brief outline. Some of us may possibly retain, after an interval of forty years, a recollection — the image now perhaps rather blurred— of that great and famous commercial capital of North Britain as it then appeared, a mass of huge, ungainly, not to say hideous, edifices — soot begrimed — intersected by streets and lanes none of the cleanest or most savoury — crowded on tho banks of the Clyde, not many years before converted from a shallow, tortuous stream, not much better than a ditch, into a deep and broad river, capable of floating what half a century ago were deemed ships of very considerable tonnage. The ancient University itself was then scarcely less ugly than the innumerable chimneys of factories which vomited forth floods of the blaokeet Bmoke, obscuring the noonday sun. Most of us, even those who dwell oa those dUtant islands o2 tho Southern 8pa f m wywrnfy nm w \m ftsy> with tin

marvellous transformation effected in the appearance of Glasgow during the last quarter of a century. Capacious and elegant houses, inhabitei by the wealthier citizens, line for many miles the shores of that river w''ose waters are crowded with vessels from every quarter of the globe, and on whose southern shore extends a line of dockyards, giving employment to upwards of three thousand artificers engaged in constructing the magnificent steamers known as the '' Clyde built," of John Elder and company, the world over. Magnificent buildings — equal in beauty and far surpassing in suitability and convenience any in the older universities either of England or of Europe itself, buildings erected at a cost proportionate to the magnificence and the opulence of the city — have for some years constituted the new home of the venerable university. Broadand handsome thoroughfares and tenements better adapted to modern requirements have long superseded the former narrow streets and dingy dwellings. During the period of fifty years intervening between the years 1831 and 1881, the population of the city of Glasgow rose from 200,000 to 488,000, and was last year (1889) estimated at 775,000, or the secoid largest, we believe, in the British Empire, exceoied by that of London alone. But very few persons, it may be safely conjectured, at any rate not themselves Scotchmen, have been kept informed of the no less marvellous change in the regulating machinery of this enormous workshop effected since the day when Air Francis Osbaldistone and his guide, Andrew Fa'^ervice entered the doors of Messrs Macbittio, Mac Fin, and Company's warehouse, and were introduced to that worthy Deacon Bailie Nicol Ja-v'e, free burgess and Magistrate o' Glasgow. The Corporation of Glasgow, which exercises control over the most expensive and compact municipal organism not only in the British Empire but throughout the civilised world, is composed, it appears, of a grand Committee of fifty men, chiefly from the ranks of men of business, upright, respected, and successful citizens. Of these, all but two councillors are elected by the 89,750 citizens of either sex, belonging to the sixteen wards, the remaining two being ex nfficio members of the Council, namely, " The Dean of Guild " and f " The Deacon Convener," or Chairman of the Associated Guil Is. This Council of Fifty, in their turn, choose a " Lord Provost," or Mayor, from their own number, and ten "baillies," or aldermen. The Corporation has absolute control, we are told, over all branches of the city government — the streets, water supply, sanitary inspection, police, fire brigade, markets, gas supply, street railways, etc. The Town Clerk — enviable being ! — is the most important standing officer in the city, much more than simply the keeper of the records of the Council and its Committees; he is also its regular legal adviser, conveyancer, and general attorney. The Chamberlain, or City Treasurer, is custodian of the city funds, with officials under him as assistants. The Sanitary, or Health, Department employs 8 epidemic inspectors, 16 nuisance inspectors, 5 district inspectors, 6 female district sub-inspectors, 6 night in- \ spectors, 2 food inspectors, 1 common lodging-house inspector, and 1 vaccinator. Last year (1889) 21,886 nuisances of various lands were reported by this staff, and all, we are assured, practically remedied. The lady inspectors during the same period paid 45,000 domiciliary visits. Tne Hospital for Epidemic Diseases, erected on a site of thirty acres, tastefully planted and laid out in lawns and walks, in the eastern suburb of the city, accommodates 600 patients. The nurses are ladies, and the hospital is open to all classes of citizens. Three thousand cases were admitted during the year. At the sanitary wash-houses, 6700 washings, t>r 380,000 separate pieces, were done in the twelvemonth. Other articles were either fumigated or cremated in a destructor. The 181 miles of streets are swept every night, chiefly by horse machines, and Avatered in the summer daily. 231,000 tone of excrementitious matter are annually carted out of the city, 195,000 tons of which are sold as manure in 15 counties of Scotland, conveyed thither in the 700 railway trucks owned by the Corporation. 794 men are employed in this scavenging department. The total net cost of cleansing, watering, and scavenging is just one shilling and fivepence per head of the population annually. At the pubiic baths, supplied, like tbe entire city, with water from Lake Katrine, 400,000 is the annual attendance, at a charge of twopence per head. In the public wash-houses, 96,832 separate washings were performed in the year 1887-8, at the cost to the washer of twopence per hour for the use of a steamboiler, hot and cold water tub, centrifugal drier, hot air chamber, and mangling machine. The Corporation, city improvements department, gas and waterworks, street tram s ystem, parks, picture galleries, &c, are no less models of what is, in tbe truest sense, municipal economy. Egmont.