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23

IiOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN.

mentioned as a second source of supply in the past. In this latter area ocour the deeper borings. New borings are sunk as^ occasion requires. After the water is obtained and pumped up to a sufficient height, it is conducted to the city and there stored and, after filtering, forced into the mains, with which is connected a small reservoir in a neighbouring park which takes any overflow. From 1879 to 1898 the daily supply of water to the city more than doubled, while the population increased by one-half. The supply in the latter year was nearly 18 gallons per day per head of the population. The total daily supply from the Manchester' Waterworks is about five times that sent out in Copenhagen, but Manchester supplies water to a population outside thé city as great as that inside, and scattered over an area nearly six times the extent of the city, and, in addition, provides a hydraulic supply. Copenhagen supplies but an insignificant quantity to users outside the city. In recent years the analyses of the water which are regularly made show it to be of excellent quality, a satisfactory reward to the efforts made to improve it. In reference to the amount of water used, I may anticipate a later section so far as to call attention to the faet that water- closets are only gradually coming into use in Copenhagen, so that the per head consumption at present does not include that considerable consumption needed for this important purpose. Perhaps the faet that, in spite of the severe winters, bursts of water-pipes through frost are very rare, may be worth stating. The value of the waterworks with all the appurtenances was given as rather over £350,000 at the end of 1898.* The outlay of the department on maintenance and on extensions of mains, etc., charged to revenue account, averaged £11,800 in 1885-89, £13,000 in 1890-94, and reached £18,500 in 1898, the inerease in recent years having been, as seen, marked. The cost of our waterworks, as stated in the Manchester accounts for last year,

* Here, and in most of wliat follows, the view that the figures are simpler to grasp if rounded off to the nearest £100, or even the nearest £1,000 in many cases, is acted upon. The loss in accuracy is quite insignificant, while the gain in clearness is substantial.