AN EXAMPLE FOR SAN FRANCISCO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8129, 1 May 1906, Page 7

AN EXAMPLE FOR SAN FRANCISCO.

Now that toe citizens of San Fran•oisoo are setting about tnere-building of their city, it is of particular interest to look at the experience of Baltimore under circumstances which, though not nearly so terrible as those in the Western city, were extremely disastrous. Baltimore wa« swept two years ago by a fire which destroyed 80,000,000 dollars' worth of property in twentyfour hours. But what appeared at firßt as a great calamity proved to be a oivio opportunity of which the Citizens took every advantage. So eoon as the FIRE BURNT ITSELF. out the Mayor appointed a Fire Emergency Committee of forty-Bix prominent citizens, who, after a month, appointed a commission of five, with the Mayor as chairman, to superintend the re-building of the , burned area on plans of greater | beauty and utility, with over 10,000;000, dollars' at its disposal. Whitle the COMMISSION WAS WORKING OUT it plans for street improvement owners of land were not allowed to commence re-building. The commission made drastic changes in the plan of the city, removing from the map no less than 700 allotments on whioh business premises had stocd, and adding about eight acres to the street area. At the same time a comprehensive scheme for the modernisation of Baltimore's great docks in the heart of the oity was carried out, by which the

' AKEA OP THE DOCKS was increased by seventeen aores. when the work of re-building was commenced, all owners were compelled to limit their buildings to 173 ft. "A truly marvellous group of facts ia revealed," says an American paper, "by an examination of the municipal reoords for the burned district. The value, as declared in the six hundred and fifty applications for permits that have been FILED SINCE THE FIRE, is slightly in excess of 16,000,000 dollars. Twenty per cent, nay safely be added to this declared valuation, so that as against an assessed building valuation of 12,908,300 dollars before the fire, Balitmore's burned district, ninety per cent, rebuilt, shows a building valuation of upwards of 19,000,000 dollars. In the taxable basis for 1906 the Appeal Tax Court ' added 19,00,0000 dollars as the whole increase in values within the burned district. Of this sum 7,000,0 00 I dollars represents the ( added value of the new buildings, and the remainder, the enhancement in VALUES OF THE LAND, exolusive of the seven hundred lots appropriated by the commission." Other improvements which the city decided to have were a better sewage system, a better system oJ parks, a perfeoted water-supply, more and better sohoolhouseß, a more efficient Are brigade, and the development of the suburbs. In short, a greatly improved and richer city rose from the ashes of the Are. Here is an example whioh San Francisco w ill surety not hesitate to follow.