Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/562

542 board is 14,500, which is rapidly increasing, as it arises from a munificent landed endowment. A large part of this money is available for works. The harbour was until lately the terminus of a line of large mail steamers running monthly to San Francisco via Auckland and Honolulu, but it is now found more convenient to use smaller steamers for the coastal section. It is, however, still the terminus of a line of fine vessels running at intervals of about ten days to Melbourne, and carrying the monthly mail for Suez and England. There is also direct steam communication with Sydney and Hobart Town, and communication via Auckland with Fiji. All the coasting steamers and many sailing vessels are owned in Dunedin. In 1875, besides the San Francisco boats, 69 vessels, varying from 250 to 1800 tons, entered the port from places beyond the seas other than Australasia. The greater number of these arrive in the early part of the summer, and load with wool for London. The customs revenue collected in 1876 amounted to ,362,335. The municipal debt amounts to 328,000, and the revenue (raised by rates, rents, water and gas works, &c.) to .47,500. The population of the city in the begin ning of 1877 was about 22,500, and that of the suburbs about 9000, while other towns within a circuit of a few miles bring it up to 35,000.  DUNFERMLINE, a city and royal burgh of Scotland, situated in the Avestern district of the county of Fife, about three miles from Limekilns, the nearest point on the Firth of Forth. It is connected with Glasgow by railway via Stirling, and with Edinburgh, from which it is distant 16 miles, both via Thornton and by a direct line constructed in 1877 to North Queensferry. The town is situated about 300 feet above the sea, on the brow of a slope which ascends from the Forth, and it accordingly commands a very extensive view of the country towards the south. It is intersected from north to south by a deep ravine, at the bottom of which a small stream pursues its tortuous course ; and this ravine is crossed by an earthen mound, on which an excellent street is built. At the east end of the town, on the south side of the turnpike road, is a public park comprising about 36 acres, partly the gift of the late Mr Ker of Middlebank ; and to the north of the road, at a little distance, are the jail, the workhouse, a hospital, and a cemetery, all in close proximity to each other. The county buildings, with their tall and graceful spire 132 feet high; the new corporation buildings, at present (1877) in course of erection, at an estimated cost of 20,000 ; the new Assembly Hall, capable of accommodating 1500 persons, now being built by a private company at a probable outlay of 10,000 ; the Carnegie Public Baths, finished and opened in 1877, and presented to his native town by Mr Andrew Carnegie of New York ; the Savings Bank ; and the British Linen Company s Bank are all worthy of notice. But the most interesting building in the town is the Abbey Church. The western portion is the nave of the cathedral of the Holy Trinity, originally erected in the massive Norman style by Malcolm Canmore about the middle of the llth century; it escaped destruction when the rest of the building was demolished by the Reformers on 28th March 1560, served as the parish church till the present century, and now forms a fine vestibule to the New Church. Extensive reparations have been made by the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests, and a number of stained glass windows have been contributed by private individuals. The eastern portion, or New Church opened for public worship on 3th Sept. 1 821 occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts, but does not agree in proportions or style with the original edifice. Exactly below the pulpit lie the remains of King Robert Bruce ; in the north transept are buried seven other kings, two queens, and numbers of the nobility ; and in the southern transept, above the vault of the Elgin family, are monuments in white marble to the Hon. Robert Bruce, tutor to the prince of Wales, and Charles Dashwood Bruce, cousin of the late Lord Elgin, as well as a bust in marble erected by Dean Stanley in memory of his wife Lady Augusta Bruce. The tomb of Queen Margaret, the wife of Malcolm Canmore, lies immediately to the east of the session- house. Of the ancient abbey buildings there still remains the south wall of the Refectory, or Fraters Hall, with an entire window much admired for its elegant and complicated workmanship. The south-west wall of the palace still stands in testimony of its former stateliness, and an apartment is pointed out by tradition as the spot where Charles I. was born. There are also some slight traces of an ancient tower popularly ascribed to Malcolm Canmore, but in all probability not of so early a date. Dunfermline has three Established churches, four United Presbyterian, three Free, one Congregational, one Episco palian, one Evangelical Union, and one Roman Catholic, as well as several places of worship belonging to smaller de nominations. The Queen Anne Street United Presbyterian Church was founded by Ralph Erskine, and the Gillespie church by George Gillespie. The former of these two great dissenters is commemorated by a statue in front of his church, and a sarcophagus over his grave in the abbey churchyard ; to the memory of the latter a marble mural tablet is inserted above his resting-place within the abbey. The town is well supplied with means of education in all the ordinary branches ; but there is no special provision for the higher departments of learning. The staple industry of Dunfermline is the manufacture of table-linens, and in this department it has almost no rival. The weaving of damask was introduced into the town in 1718 by a Mr James Blake, who had succeeded in getting possession of the jealously guarded secret in workshops at Drumsheugh. near Edinburgh, to which he obtained access by feigning idiocy. Till about 1 845 the bulk of the popula tion were engaged on handlooms, but at present only a comparatively small number earn a scanty and precarious subsistence by the old method. The eleven power-loom factories in the town in 1877 give employment to about 5000 persons, of whom a large proportion are females. The annual value of the goods manufactured is about 850,000. Iron and brass foundries, soapworks, and dyeworks are among the minor industrial establishments, and in the vicinity there are about 22 collieries. Dunfermline returns a member to Parliament in con junction with Stirling, Inverkeithing, and Culross. The population of the town was 14,963 in 1871, and is now (1877) 15,839; that of the parish, which, besides the strictly rural district around, includes Limekilns and Charleston, with several colliery districts, was 23,123 in 1871, and ia now 24,329. The town is governed by a council con sisting of 22 members, including a provost, four bailies, and other officials. The revenue of the town, derived prin cipally from coal-fields, was 7875 in 1876. The number of inhabited houses is 1638 ; the annual value of real pro perty, 56,038. There are two newspapers published weekly, and four banks, besides the National Savings Bank. In spite of the introduction in 1850 of an apparently abundant supply of spring water, a scarcity has since been felt in dry seasons; and accordingly at present (1877) works are in progress to effect a communication with the River Devon. It is anticipated that the cost of these will be nearly 60,000. Drainage works are also being con structed, at an estimated cost of 9000, to convey the sewage of the city to the sea at Limekilns. The situation of Dunfermline is very favourable to health : the birth rate is 40 per thousand, the rate of mortality 1S 4, and the marriage rate 8 7