292564228

22

M il. A. W. FLUX, M.A., ON CITY GOVERNMENT AND

have not a household of their own, do not possess the franchise. The voting is not by wards or distriots each of which olaims its representative, but for the six representatives together, eaoh man having six votes. The division of the city into 13 voting distriots is merely for convenience, so far as the election of the city’s Council is concerned. The extent to which burgesses exeroise their votes is worth a word. For a long period before 1886 the interest shown in eleotions was meagre in the extreme, the franchise never being exeroised by as many as 20 per cent' of those entitled to vote, and occasionally reaching as low as under 4 per cent. From 1886 an improvement is shown, and that in such a degree that, in the last four years, between 70 and 80 per cent of possible votes have been given. In addition to the indications already noted of the activities of this somewhat bureaucratic govemment, a few of the depart- ments may be examined separately, as briefly as the case permits. We may confine ourselvee to a brief inquiry respecting water , lighting, tramwmjs, cleansing, roads and parks, poor-law, and schools, all of which are dealt with by the one body, not, as with us, by three distinet authorities. Water .— The city formerly drew its water-supply from a lake about 2J miles westward, and from some borings in its neigh- bourhood. The growth of the consumption caused the acquisi- tion, in 1873, of a larger lake about 12 miles? north-west of the city. The water obtained from this source was not of as good quality as was desirable, and after serious causes of complaint had arisen in 1882 a series of efforts was made to obtain a supply of water from deep borings to replace the supply of the lakes, which was surface water to a large extent. From 1886 onwards a systematic investigation of the capabilities, in regard to water supply, of the neighbodrhood of the city was carried on, and as a result, since 1893 the water supply has been exolusively from deep borings, from 50 to 150 feet in depth. The area over which these extend is no less than 180 square miles, some lying at distances from 5 to 10 or more miles west of the city, others along the borders of the large lake already