Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/1174

1120 Finance. The city's budget grew from $163,130,270.37 in 1910 to $345.530. 39-77 in 1921. The assessed value of its taxable prop- erty, real and personal, grew from $7,416,837,499 in 1910 to $8,922,- 628,742 in 1920, when the real estate was valued at $8,626,122,557. The net funded debt in 1920 was $1,033,878,359, the gross bonded debt being $1,238,260,597. The floating debt was $42,350,400 and the sinking fund $204,382,238. Among the large items of the 1921 budget were $50,720,880 for education; $105,528,527 for redemp- tion and interest of the city's debt ; $10,029,222 for county purposes; $28,349,407 for police; $17,409,649 for borough governments; $17.033.082 for fire protection; $16,790,036 for street cleaning; $8,706,947 for water supply and public lighting; $8,146,850 for charitable institutions; $4,074,637 for parks; $14,592,413 for public welfare; $5,655,868 health; and $5,419,850 plant and structures.

History. During the administration of Mayor Gaynor, which began in 1910, there arose an increased interest in ad- ministration on the part of the citizens. The mayor, known locally for certain whimsical characteristics, had gained a hold on popular sympathy as a result of his attempted assassination. Later he became ill, and while on a steamer to Europe, travelling to regain his health, died Sept. 10 1913. Adolph L. Kline (b. 1858), president of the Board of Aldermen, succeeded to the office for the remaining few months of the term. A fusion ticket led by John Purroy Mitchel (1870-1918), who had made an enviable record in public office as Commissioner of Accounts, Collector of the Port and president of the Board of Aldermen, easily defeated the Tammany ticket. Mitchel, but 35 years of age, undertook a complete reorganization of administration, and obtained remarkable results, making his mayoralty a period of unprecedented efficiency in the city's government. Of especial note were the improvements in police, street cleaning, charities and corrections, and the establishment of high standards and expert service in taxation, purchasing and the selection of personnel. Though admittedly efficient, economical and honest, this administration saw itself at the end of four years buried under the greatest majority for Tammany on record. The causes were many. Mayor Mitchel antagonized one powerful group after another; certain real estate interests by the " pay-as-you-go " plan of financing; the German group by his pro- Ally sympathies; a large manufacturing group by refusal to remove trade refuse free of charge; the upper W. side by the unfortunate W. side plan for removal of the New York Central surface tracks; the Catholic vote by his procedure regarding certain charities; the borough of Richmond by locating a garbage incinerator plant in that section; and Brooklyn by his rigid policy of centralization. The result was that John F. Hylan (b. 1868), a candidate from Brooklyn, led a complete Tammany ticket into office, with a platform of outspoken opposition to almost everything the Mitchel administration had done. Subsequently, however, upon the election of the president of the Board of Aldermen, Alfred E. Smith, to the governorship of the state, and the death in office of the president of the borough of Manhattan, Republicans were elected to the vacancies so created. Mayor Hylan's regime was marked by continual wrangling among the members of the Board of Estimate, resulting in many cases in distinct disturbance of administrative machinery. The outstanding features were the fight of the city against increased fares for the traction lines, the declaration of receiverships for practically all of the traction companies of the city except the Manhattan elevated and sub- ways, the dissolution of the companies into a number of independent lines, the operation by the city of the Staten I. traction lines and the introduction of motor-bus lines by the city in competition with the traction systems.

Among the notable bequests to the Metropolitan Museum during recent years have been those of Francis L. Leland, $1,000,000; Joseph Pulitzer, $900,000; Benjamin Altman, collection of paint- ings, sculpture, Chinese porcelains, etc., with a fund for their care; William Henry Riggs, collection of arms and armour; Harris B. Dick, collections and funds over $1,000,000; Isaac D. Fletcher, collection of paintings and objects of art and fund over $3,400,000; and John Hoge, over $1,000,000. (R. B. F.) NEW ZEALAND (see 19.624). The pop. of the Dominion of New Zealand (exclusive of Maoris), as enumerated at the taking of the census, was as follows: 1911 (April 2) 1,008,468 (S3i,9io males, 476,558 females); 1916 (Oct. 15) 1,099,449 (551,775 males and 547,674 females). The 1916 figures were of course affected by war conditions. At the end of 1916 females were estimated to be in a majority for the first time in the history of the country, and the majority steadily grew until at the end of 1918 they were more than 24,000 ahead. But with the return of the troops the preponderance of males was restored, though not to the same degree as before. On Dec. 31 1920 the official estimate of the pop. (excluding Maoris) was 1,194,844, of whom 604,751 were males and 590,093 females. If the 49,776 Maoris and the 12,707 inhabitants of the Cook and other Pacific islands annexed to New Zealand be added, the grand total is 1,257,417. The pop. of the principal cities on Dec. 31 1919 was estimated as follows, the bracketed figures indicating the totals if suburbs are included: Auckland 73,852 (144,646); Wellington 81,301 (100,898); Christchurch 61,104 do4,747); Dunedin 57,935 (72,084). The proportion of the pop. living in towns of over i,ooo inhabitants in 1878 was 31-47; the proportion living in towns of over 3,000 inhabitants in 1916 was 42-28.

In 1916 72-34% of the pop. was New Zealand born; 25-83 was born in the United Kingdom or other British territory; and only 1-70 was foreign-born, Germany and Austria-Hungary, with 0-27 and 0-22 respectively, taking the lead.

In 1916 the number of " race aliens " in the Dominion, i.e. persons not of European or Maori descent, was 3,204; of these 2,147 were Chirtese, 459 Syrians and 181 Indians. In 1896, when the poll-tax on Chinese was increased from 10 to 100, they numbered 3,711, but since then the number had steadily declined till 1920, when the arrival of 476 Chinese and 174 Indians during the first six months of the year led to a drastic measure which, without relax- ing existing restrictions, left the regulation of foreign immigration in the hands of the Government.

Births and Deaths. The birth-rate fell from its maximum of 41-96 per 1,000 in 1878 to 25-12 in 1899, the lowest figure reached before the war. In 1913 it stood at 26-14, and the average of the next four years was 25-74; then followed a sharp drop to the lowest figures yet reached: 1918, 23-44; I9 I 9, 21-54.

The decline in the birth-rate continues to be partly compensated by an abnormally low death-rate, which in 1912 reached its lowest recorded point of 8-87 per 1,000, and in 1919 was 9-51. Only once since 1907 has the rate been as high as lo per 1,000, and that was in 1918, when the epidemic of pneumonic influenza caused 5,516 deaths (exclusive of approximately 1,200 among the Maoris) and brought the death-rate up to 14-84. The effect of the low death-rate is to give the Dominion one of the highest rates of natural increase in the world, the figures for 1913-7 being 16-4 per 1,000.

The death-rate per 10,000 from the four principal causes during 1919 was as follows: organic heart disease 13-53; senility 9-29; cancer 8-23; pulmonary tuberculosis 5-30. The averages for the two last-named causes during the ten years 1910-9 were: cancer 8-23; pulmonary tuberculosis 5-58. The death-rate for all forms of tuber- culosis has been declining for many years, but that from cancer is steadily rising.

Trade. External trade rose from 37,372,000 in 190710 45,275,- 024 in 1913. In " special " trade per inhabitant New Zealand with 41 143. 3d. was in that year second to Belgium alone (48 l8s. id.), and in exports of domestic produce (21 35. 8d.) she stood first. The course of the Dominion's trade during and since the war is shown by the following figures:

Imports

Exports

Total

1913 1914

1915

1916

1917 1918 1919 1920 1921*

22,288,302 21,856,096 21,728,834 26,339,283 20,919,265 24,234,007 30,671,698 61,595,828 15,658,502

22,986,722 26,261,447 31,748,912 33,286,937

31-587,547 28,516,188

53,970,075 46,441,946

13,196,514

45,275,024 48,117,543 53,477,746 59,626,220 52,516,812 52,750,195

84,641,773 108,037,774 28,855,016


 * March quarter.

The favourable balance of trade, which had averaged a little over 2,000,000 in the five years before the war, averaged in 1915-9 _ v l 1,043,314. It increased to 23,298,467 in 1919, but the adverse balance of 15,153,882 in 1920, when the previous year's "record" imports were doubled, combined with the fall in the price of wool and meat, indicates a severe check to the prosperity of the war period.

On ten principal exports, representing in value more than 80% of the whole, it is estimated that in the four years ended Marcher 1919 the Dominion gained 34,410,144 through the appreciation of its produce since 1913, the proportion being 45-98 per cent.

During the years 1909-13 the United Kingdom supplied 60-07% of the Dominion's imports and received 80-43 % of its exports. The contributions of the British Empire were 83-87 % of the imports and