Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/85

Rh with twelve charitable organizations, with which the board acts in concert. The board holds charity trust funds amounting to 312,183, it expended in 1874 101,591, and relieved 304 beneficiaries on its trust funds, and 9762 other persons.

, Valuation, &c.—The of Boston, in 1708, was about 12,000; in 1719, about 18,000; in 1780, about 23,000; in 1800, 25,000; in 1850, 139,000; and, with and, in 1873, was 308,875. brought with it 32,040; West Roxbury, 10,361; and, 5978. The total, in 1875, must be nearly 360,000. The valuation of the city in 1875 was 554,200,150 of real estate, and 244,554,900 of personal property,—total, 798,755,050. The value of the corporate public property is 30,787,292. The net  is 27,294,208. The number of public paupers, including, is 689; of , 1495. There are fifty-eight and  in the, the  of which is 52,900,000, and the circulation 27,074,396. The number of s is twenty-one, with deposits of 73,322,368·56. Of and  companies,  and mutual, there are thirty, with four new ones in formation, besides  companies and those against accidents and for specific forms of property. The annual sale of merchandise in the is estimated at 1,000,000,000.

.—Boston has relations with every part of the globe. In 1874 the value of its foreign  was 49,522,547; of its  of foreign merchandise, 2,084,257; and of its domestic merchandise, in, 27,035,169. There arrived 167 s from foreign s, with a nage of 234,587 and 6324 men; of foreign s from foreign ports 1849, with a nage 484,448 and 18,486 men. There cleared for foreign s, 598 s, with 254,347 s and 6606 men; and 1882 foreign s, with 472,941 s and 17,995 men. The total nage of Boston, registered and enrolled, on December 31, 1874, was 331,266. Its is slowly recovering from the effects of the.

Great s.—The s of Boston having from the first been largely of, the use of which material for that purpose is now under severe restrictions, and closely compacted, the old suffered from frequent and disastrous, several of which were successively described as &quot;The Great Fire.&quot; There had been ten of these disasters, severe under the then existing circumstances, before the year 1698. In 1711, the and a meeting-house, both of, and a hundred dwellings were destroyed. In 1760 a conflagration consumed 349 dwellings, stores, and shops, and rendered more than 1000 people homeless. But these and all subsequent ones were eclipsed in their devastation by the disaster of 9-10, 1872, in which hundreds of costly  filled with goods, with, offices, es, &c., were destroyed, though all of  or , involving a loss of over 80,000,000. It is an evidence of the energy and resources of the citizens, that in a little more than two years after the catastrophe, the whole &ldquo;burnt district,&rdquo; with widened and improved s, was covered with solid, substantial, and palatial combining all the safeguards, improvements, and conveniences of modern skill. At least as large an amount has been expended on this restoration as was lost in the ruin. The has been made more efficient under the control of three commissioners. There are now in the city twenty-nine s and a fire- in the, eleven hook and  companies, sixteen - companies, a protective department, an  , with s, &c., an  , and a system of.

Supply.—Though the first settlers were drawn to Boston by its pure and abundant, the want of resources was long felt till efficient measures were taken for a supply. The southern portion of the was supplied at the beginning of this century by an  from Jamaica  in. The works already constructed and still in progress fully meet the present and prospective demands. The waters from Cochituate and its tributaries, from twenty to thirty s from the city, flowed into it by,  25, 1848. The storage s and the works have cost up to May 1875, 10,786,739. The length of the conduit of is 14⅛ s, and of supply s of  262⅓ s. The annexation of  brought with it the waters of Mystic, the works for which had cost 1,147,902, with 1½ s of  conduit, and 127 s of , ing s, and.

The of the are organized and supervised under the s of the  which make provision for free  by some compulsory enactments, subject to such special s as may be enjoined by the. The Legislature of 1875, by an (chapter 241), introduced a change in the composition and functions of the school committee. Henceforward this board is to consist of twenty-four members, chosen by the citizens on general ticket, to be disposed in three sections of eight members each. After the close of the first year from the first election, eight members are to retire, and eight new members are to be elected, to serve for three years, all without compensation. The board is to elect and fix the compensation of a secretary, an ing clerk, and other necessary subordinate officers, and also of a superintendent of schools, and a board of not more than six supervisors. The is to be, ex officio, chairman of the general board, to which no other member of the  can belong, and which shall have the whole management of the s, choosing and fixing the compensation of all teachers, s, &c., but needing the authority of the city  before incurring an expense exceeding 1000 for the purchase of land, or the erection or alteration of a. Boston has now 9, 49, 416 , 25 evening schools and , licensed minors', -, and schools,—total, 499. The number of teachers employed is 1289; of scholars, 53,391. Cost of maintenance for the ending  1, 1875, 1,724,373·61. In the old there is a,  , girls high, and ; and in each of the  that have been annexed there is a high school, where classical  is furnished.

The public s of Boston are very numerous, embracing those of the, the, the , and the. Most of them have been built within a few years, and are substantial and commodious, but, owing to the constant expansion and growth of the city, each of them in turn becomes contracted, and needs enlargement or a substitute. The s connected with each of the have been reconstructed for extension three or four times. The largest group of edifices and works is that of the -, with s,, , shops,  stores, -walks, s,  pits,  sheds,  parks, -houses, &c. The half of a very elaborate and costly edifice, the corner-stone of which was laid by, is now (1875) completed and in use for the and sub-. The other half, now in progress, will accommodate the. There is also a, with ed s, and the.