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9

LOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN.

too much sihirked among us. The interior of each tenant’s apartment may remain private, but the oleanliness and proper repair of approaches and many subsidiary matters are more capable of enforcement where a responsible official resides an the spot who must answer for such matters. An apartment in a worlcmen’s block-dwelling may be a long way from being a heaven on earth, but it would be difficult for it to be further removed from that condition than some of the small houses one can see in towns like our own if one wanders a little aside from the main avenues of traffic for the purpose. The multi- plicity of tenants in a block-dwelling compels the assumption by the landlord of some responsibilities which in our separate-house system seem to be more conveniently imposed on the occupier. The authorities impose a limit on the number of floors in buddings in Copenhagen besides insisting on solidity of Construc­ tion and proper provision in respect of sanitation. Besides the cellar, which isiound in about 30 per cent of inhabited buddings, and which commonly is but half underground, and the entresol above it, four further storeys and an attic floor form the extreme limit. I observed that in some places in the workpeople’s quarters, new houses with a floor less than I have named reached to the same height as older houses standing alangside with the number stated. Additional height was given to each storey, though that meant the sacrifice of about one-sixth of the floor area. In 1895 all but one-half of the buildings devoted to private dwellings had five or six floors above ground, while under 18J per cent had only one or two storeys above ground. Of these buildings there were 41 per cent which contained ten or more tenements let as private dwellings, while about a quarter of the people lived in buildings each of which contained 100 or mare inhabitants. Comparisans of density of population under such different conditions as those of Manchester and Copenhagen would seem to be useless. Yet I find some striking facts in the comparison.