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LOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN. 63 publication of tables, so as to make a continuous record, is surely feasible, say, once in five years. The statistics one might name as, among others, likely to be desirable in such a collection are such as meteorological tables, vital statistics, occupation statistics, housing statistics (including a classification of houses botli by number of rooms and by amount of yearly value in the different parts of the city), such returns relating to the factories and workshops of the city and the numbers of the employed in them as might prob- ably be secured from the factory inspectors, who have been engaged in gathering these facts in recent years— bankruptcy statistics, criminal statistics, education statistics, statistics show- ing the progress of municipal income and of the expenditure for the leading purposes tO' which such expenditure is directed, pauperism statistics, and other matters, including trade figures of the district, such as movement of traffic on the Ship Canal, import or export of principal commodities, and the like. The existing excellent Official Handbook has an aim entirely different from what I have in view. It is concemed with persons; the tables I propose would entirely ignore individuals, and consider aggregates and averages. They would require a good deal of boiling down, so as to- reduce them to their least possible dimensions, while preserving the maximum Utility as sources of information to the person referring to them. I do not conceive of the necessity of any explanation or comment on the tables, except in the most concise foot-notes where essential. Is it or is it not desirable that such light on Manchester life and progress as the assemblage in one small volume of such diverse tables •of figures .>would afford should be provided, and, if it be desirable, is not our Society the body to undertake it? It is not a work for one man alone. Several must be engaged, if only because special knowledge of various kinds is required in order to devise the most informing tables, which shall also be concise. Will it not be well that our Society shouH make pre- paration for signalising the entry on the new century by putting
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