Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/301

 PARIS 279 water-works and sewers, promenades and plantations, river naviga tion and river ports, public pawnbroking establishments, and the relief of the poor are all under the control of the prefecture of Seine. The prefecture of police includes the whole department of Seine and the neighbouring communes of the department of Seine-et- Oise Meudon, St Cloud, Sevres, and Enghien. It consists of three sections political police, police of public safety, and admin istrative police, the two former being rather national than muni cipal. The state consequently repays two-fifths of the animal budget of about 800,000 which this prefecture receives from the city. The municipal police deals with public health, civil order, and repression of crimes and misdemeanours, whether against person, property, or morals. It exercises surveillance over lodging houses, the insane, and prostitutes, tests weights and measures, and has charge of the markets, the public vehicles, the fire department, sanitary arrangements, and exhumations and reinterments in the cemeteries. The prefect of police has a staff of 8500 officials cmnmissaires de police, officiers de paix, gardiens de fa jiaix (a kind of police- magistrate 1 ;, and inspectors. He has also under his orders the sapeurs pompiers or fire-brigade (1742 men), and the republican guard, long called the municipal guard, which numbers 3295 men, besides a mounted force of 726. He has full control over the budget of his department, which is voted en bloc by the municipal council. Expen- Revenue and Expenditure. The heaviest item of expenditure is diture. the public debt : the sum at 31st December 1883, represented by the series of annuities terminable in 1950, amounts to a total of 171,730,965. The annuity for 1883 was 3,693,303. Over and above this the city is authorized to have a floating debt of 800,000. The following are in round nr.nbers the main items of the ordinary budget for IS 83, the exact sum varying from year to year : Prefecture of police (partly repaid by the state) 950,000 Streets and roads (&quot; voie publique&quot; and &quot;voierie&quot;) 999,000 Primary and professional education 890, 000 Poor relief. 795,000 Water-works and drainage 520,000 Public walks, plantations, and lighting 392,000 Octroi or customs (the main source of municipal revenue) 296,000 Central administration, &quot; mairies,&quot; and municipal council 337.000 Architecture and fine arts 212,000 By the addition of the expenses of the College Rollin (an institu tion for secondary education belonging to the city), and some miscellaneous expenses of less amount, the ordinary budget for 1883 reached the sum of 10,106,533, and by the further addi tion of 44,000 belonging to the previous year, a grand total of 10,150,533. The extraordinary budget shows expenses to the amount of 298,444 on general funds, and 90,000 on special funds. The former is specially devoted to architectural works (rebuilding the Hotel de Yille) and keeping up streets and roadways, and the latter to the erection of buildings ^Sorboune, f.icultv of law, and canal St Denis). Revenue. The following are the principal items of ordinary revenue : Octroi (municipal customs) 5,596,802 Communal centimes added to the direct contributions 948,805 Municipal share in the profits of the gas company 604,000 Water-rates and income from the canals belonging to the city 442,867 Government subsidy to the municipal police 307,753 Fines, shooting licences 220,110 Revenue for public instruction (legacies, &c.) Unknown Duty on gas supplied to private persons (0 02 fr. per ciib. met., about 5^d. per 1000 cub. feet) 225,250 Cab-stands, omnibuses, and tramways 194,937 Government subsidy for the maintenance of the public roads and streets 164,000 Dues from goods exposed for sale in the public markets 1 80,012 Slaughter-houses 138,136 Householders street-cleaning tax (taxe de lalaijagc) . . . 108,416 Warehouses 101,492 Sale of burial-lots in the cemeteries 94,284 Stands in the markets and market-places 83,461 Paving and cleaning of the streets 95,717 Ground-rents 62,594 Nightsoil and sewage 56,597 Rent of stands on the public streets 51,782 Including less important items, the total ordinary revenue in 1882 was 10,489,373 ; and the arrears of former years revenue paid up amounted to 1,218,883. The extraordinary budget on general and special funds amounts to 6,450,037 ; but a large proportion of this consists of sums which are carried forward from one fiscal year to another, till the expenses which they are meant to cover are liquidated. The chief items in the octroi are Beverages 2,566,118 Eatables 1,232,362 Liquids, other than beverages 608, 238 Fuel 463,278 Building materials 525,698 Wood for industrial purposes 246,693 Fodder. 204,102 Total (1882), comprising other less important items,.. ..5, 986,541 Streets. The public streets, covering an area of 3877 acres, Streets, make a total length of 580 miles, 143 miles being bordered with trees. The municipality is going on with the work of planting as rapidly as possible, though each new tree costs about 8. The staff entrusted with maintaining and cleaning the public streets comprises 320 engineers, overseers, and timekeepers, who have under their orders 2123 paviors and roadmen and 3185 per manent and supernumerary scavengers. The maintenance of the streets costs 406,800 ; that of the pavements and sidewalks, 62,224; cleaning, 259,480. The streets are for the most part paved (1525 acres on January 1, 1883), usually with Yvette sand stone from the neighbourhood of Paris. The most frequented crossings are laid with Belgian porphyry. The metalled roadways cover 445 acres, the asphalted 83 acres, the earthen 26. Wooden paving, previously employed only for 2 acres, was in 1883 laid down in the Champs Elysees, and in 1884 extended to the Avenue I de 1 Opera, Rue de Rivoli. the line of the Grands Boulevards, and j Rue Royale. Of the total area of 1131 acres occupied by pavements I and sidewalks, two-ninths are covered with asphalt, one-third 1 with sand, one-seventh with granite, and the rest with paving- stone. There are 5070 plugs for the watering of the streets, and 400 water-carts. The annual consumption of water for this purpose amounts to 130,174,478 cubic feet (195 days). The sweeping of the streets in the morning devolves on the householders, and is commuted by payment of a tax (see above) ; during the day the whole cost falls on the municipality. The point of greatest traffic in Paris is the Place de la Bastille ; one current passing from Rue St Autoine to the Faubourg St Autoine and another from the Grands Boulevards to the railway stations for Yincennes, Lyons, and Orleans. On an average 42,000 carriages and 55,900 draught horses pass through this square in the twenty-four hours. Next in amount of traffic come Rue de Rivoli, 33*232 vehicles ; Avenue de 1 Opera, 29,460 ; Rue du Pont Neuf, 20,668; Boulevard des Italiens, 20,124; Place de 1 Etoile, 18,311; Rue Royale, 14,095. The most frequented of the bridges are Pont de la Concorde, 10,003 ; Pont Neuf, 8519 ; and Pont d Austerlitz, 7340. Means of Conveyance. Cabs, omnibuses, tramways, steamboats, Convey- and a railway (the Chemin de Fer de Ceinture) are the local ance. means of transit in Paris. The steamboats ply up the river to Charenton, down the river to Suresnes. Within the city, in 1882, they plied on 329 days, made an aggregate of 8162 days of service, traversed 479.997 miles, and conveyed 11,170,980 passengers. Out side the limits of the city, up the river, the days were also 329 aggregate days 2265, aggregate distance 123,007 miles, passengers 3,122,593; down the river the days were 329 aggregate days 2356, miles 180,138, and passengers 1,262,680. The omnibus company employs both ordinary omnibuses and tramway-cars. In 1882 it employed 610 omnibuses and 255 tram-cars, conveying 200, 187, 455 passengers. The two tramway companies distinguished as Northern and Southern have conveyed respectively 26,076,761 and 27,067,951 passengers. The Chemin de Fer de Ceinture, which runs round the city just within the fortifications, conveyed 21,617,909 passengers. As cab-hiring is an open industry (though the cabmen are restricted in their charges by a tarif, and are subject to police control), the movement of the cabs cannot be given exactly. In 1882 the number of horses belonging to private persons and bound to be at the service of the army in case of mobi lization was found to be 95,847 ; in 1878 the number of carnages was 13,372. Water and Drainage. Paris derives its water-supply (1) from Water the Seine and the Marne, (2) from the Ourcq Canal, (3) from supply, artesian wells, and (4) from springs. (1) The two steam-pumps at Chaillot on the Seine raise each at their ordinary rate 635,688 j cubic feet and at their maximum 1,518,588 in the twenty-four ! Paris, at St Ouen below Paris, and at the Quai d Austerlitz and ! Auteuil (within the city), can supply about 600,372,000 cubic feet j per annum. In 1880 about 2,119,000 cubic feet on an average were j taken daily from the Seine. The water is stored in reservoirs at the highest points in Passy, Montmartre, Charonne, and Gentilly. The ! establishment at St Maur, situated on the canal which closes the ! loop of the Marne, and partly moved by the head of water and
 * hours. The ten pumps at Port & 1 Anglais and Maisons- Alfort above
 * partly by steam, supplies the Bois de Yincennes and the elevated

i districts of Belleville and Menilmontant. It can furnish 2,896,000 ! cubic feet in the twenty-four hours. (2) The Ourcq Canal, which is