Ten per cent. dividend is regularly paid on the ordinary stockthree times as much as the Town Council would have had to pay on the same amount of municipal stock. Over 170 local authorities have now "municipalized" their gas works, to the great advantage of their constituents. Why should not Bristol imitate Bradford, for instance, and, taking over its gas-works, reduce the price to the consumer, secure fair treatment of the gas-workers, improve the lighting of its streets, courts and common stairways, and make an annual surplus in aid of the rates? BRISTOL'S TRAMWAYS. The internal communications of Bristol are mainly in the hands of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company, which makes a profit out of its gratuitous use of Bristol streets; and pays its ordinary shareholders five per cent. To earn this profit for the tramway shareholders, the tramway workers are kept on duty over 14 hours per day. Over 30 local authorities own their own tram-lines, comprising a quarter of the whole mileage open. This enables them to secure the interests both of the public and the tramway workers, by suitable conditions in their lease of the lines. The Glasgow Town Council, for instance, exacts the following conditions: 66 Only such persons as can satisfy the Magistrates' Committee that they have a thorough knowledge of the City and the duties of a car conductor, shall be licensed as such. The working day of conductors and drivers shall not exceed an average of ten hours. The conductors of cars shall be provided with proper uniform, consisting of tunic, trousers, and cap, and no conductor shall be permitted to be on duty without uniform. A uniform great-coat shall be provided for the winter months. No conductor, driver, or other officer shall be permitted on a car unless his clothing is in good order and his whole person clean and tidy. The lessees shall provide proper sanitary conveniences for the drivers and conductors at places where these are requisite, and as may be agreed on with the Corporation." The Huddersfield Town Council goes further. Under a special Act of Parliament (45 & 46 Vict. c. 236) it works its own tramways without the intervention of any contractor or other middleman. The consequence is that the Huddersfield tramway servants enjoy an Eight Hours Day, and the Huddersfield citizens low fares and an annual profit to spend for public purposes. Under the terms of 33 and 34 Vic., c. 78, sec. 43, the Bristol Town Council will be able to take over the tramway at the expiration of 21 years from its construction, on payment only of the actual value of the plant and stock. This period will be completed, as regards the first portion of the line, in 1893. Bristol citizens should insist on the Town Council taking advantage of this option, and obtaining power, as Huddersfield and Liverpool have done, to work the lines under direct municipal management. BRISTOL'S DOCKS. The shipping trade of Bristol has, notwithstanding the growth of the city, declined during the last few years, while that of Cardiff and Newport has enormously increased. During the last five years the tonnage entering the port of Bristol was as follows: 1886 1887 1,344,013 tons, viz., Foreign, 638,254, Coastwise, 705,759 In 1884 the city made a determined attempt to maintain her commercial position by acquiring the docks at Avonmouth and Portishead, which had been already constructed by private companies. These docks, being near the sea, are better adapted than the old quays to the conditions of modern trade. But at present the normal traffic only takes up two-thirds of the available accommodation, and the Portishead Dock, which is almost exclusively used for grain, is. worked at an actual loss. The price paid for the Avonmouth Dock and warehouses was about £550,000; the cost of the Portishead. Dock and granaries £250,000. The total Dock debt of £1,875,022 (March 1890-Statement of the Corporation)—or, taking the figures. in the statement of expenditure on capital account to April 30, 1890, issued by the Docks Committee, £1,901,440-is made up as follows: Original Works up to 1848 (Old Dock Company) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... £424,781 ... ... £1,901,440 To this ought to be added a sum of £89,920 raised under the Portishead Dock Act, 1871, to subsidise the Dock, which forms part of the debt of the Corporation proper. The loss on the working of the Dock Estate and City Quays combined, after allowing for the interest on loan capital and sinkingfund, was £5,772 and £18,911 for the years ended 30th April 1889 and 1890 respectively; and for the next year the loss will be heavier. The Borough rate which is being levied in aid of the Dock Revenue is £29,000 for the current year, as against £18,000 for the year ended. 30th April 1890. For the year ended 30th April, 1890, the three accounts-Bristol Avonmouth and Portishead-stand as follows: The adverse balance has to be met out of the Borough rate (£18,000 having been voted for that year in addition to the Harbor rate on City Houses, £2,360). Against this must be set the advantage accruing to the general prosperity of the town from the efforts made to keep up its trade. Before the city acquired the Avonmouth and Portishead Docks, the receipts from dues on tonnage and rates on goods fell from £44,411 in 1876, and £45,060 in 1877, to £41,363 (1878), £37,409 (1879), and £29,688 (1882). If this fall had continued, a single generation might have reduced the port of Bristol to the condition of Bruges. The gain to Bristol by the acquisition of these docks is therefore unquestionable. BRISTOL'S COLLECTIVE PROVISION FOR THE SICK AND INSANE. Comparatively little has been done directly by the public authorities of Bristol towards collective provision for the sick. The poor law infirmaries and infectious hospitals which in London provide out of the Poor rate two-thirds of the total number of hospital beds, supply in Bristol only 510 (see p. 4) out of a total of 1,070 hospital beds. Much additional public provision for the sick is needed before the ideal is attained of a hospital bed available for every case of serious illness in the city. The lack of adequate accommodation for infectious cases is nothing short of a public scandal. Meanwhile the various medical charities, which are under no public control, to some extent supply the want of public provision. Bristol has three hospitals for the reception of in-patients: the Royal Infirmary, the General Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children and Women (102 beds); besides these there are various Dispensaries for out-patients, and such special institutions as the Eye and Lock Hospitals and District Nursing Society. The Bristol Lunatic Asylum is under the control of a Visiting Committee of the Town Council, the total expenditure being £14,555. The two larger hospitals are utilised for the medical school of Bristol University College. Their most important statistics for 1889 are given below: Of the Infectious Hospital accomodation, 246 beds are in the hands of the Guardians, available for pauper cases only (100 for small pox, 126 for fever, 20 for erysipelas cases), but up to 1889 there were only 44 beds in temporary structures, available for non-pauper cases; steps have since been taken to provide further accommodation. With the present hospital provision, more than one disease cannot be isolated at a time, and during the 1887-8 small-pox epidemic, only cases of small-pox could be admitted. (Medical Officer of Health's Reports, 1888 and 1889.) CONCLUSION. This summary review of the social and financial condition of Bristol inculcates many duties upon its public-spirited citizens; but it teaches one lesson above all its others, and that is the need for extending public control and administration to all the services, both material and educational, which are of prime necessity to the community. Since the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Bristol sprang into importance as a sheltered and conveniently situated trading mart at the confluence of the Avon and Frome, flanked by a strong castle, its history for five hundred years records the continuous growth of commercial prosperity and of municipal liberties. At first a part of the King's manor of Barton, and under a King's reeve, Bristol was allowed, early in the thirteenth century, to elect its own mayor; and the ferm or rent of the town which belonged to the king, and was in lieu of rents, fines, and of revenue derived from fairs and markets, was leased to the mayor and commonalty. In 1225 the ferm was let at £245 a year; in the reign of Henry VI. it amounted to £460; it was reduced by Richard III., and was finally redeemed in the reign of Charles I.* This is the reason why the city to-day enjoys so large a sum from its City Property. The two signs of a free and self-governing community for which Bristol burgesses contended in the earliest days were popular elective government and municipal control of the revenues from city land and from profitable public services. A free city, in the view of our forefathers, should not be beholden to any landlord-not even a royal landlord-nor subject to any monopoly. The plain duty of the commonalty at the present moment does not differ one jot from the principles which constituted the life and breath of the patriotism of free Bristolians six hundred years ago. By a strange irony of fate, the Socialist who appears to himself, no less than to others, to be the advocate of brand-new revolutionary changes, has only to search the annals of the past to find that in his principles of municipal reform he is, after all, in truth, a most consistent Conservative. If the large income from its city property proves the wisdom of the city fathers of the past, the deficits on the Dock account prove the folly of those of the present day in allowing private competition to usurp the field and to spoil the game, when, in the end, the city was forced to step in at the eleventh hour. But, in the case of the Docks, it was the private self-interest of a number of merchants and others which forced the city into the policy of undertaking their management. This is a very one-sided application of municipal Socialism, if the city should only deal with concerns that will least pay. The public self-interest of the mass of citizens must be aroused to overcome any opposition of landholders and shareholders, and to acquire for the profit of the community those monopolies which the municipality can manage. Bristol, in "Historic Towns" Series, by W. Hunt, p. 51. HE FABIAN SOCIETY consists of Socialists. A statement Tof its Principles, Rules, Conditions of Membership, etc., can be obtained from the Secretary, at 276, Strand, London, W.C. Also the following publications:: "FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM." (22nd Thousand.) A full exposition of modern English Socialism in its latest and maturest phase. Library Edition, 6s.; or, direct from the Secretary for Cash, 4/6 (postage 4 d.) Cheap Edition, Paper cover (published by Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, London), 18.; ditto, plain cloth, 28. At all booksellers, or post free from the Secretary for 1s. and 2s. respectively. FABIAN TRACTS. No. 1.-Why are the Many Poor ? 75th thousand. Is. per 100. Price 6 for id.; No. 5.-Facts for Socialists. A survey of the distribution of income and the condition of classes in England, gathered from official returns, and from the works of economists and statisticians. 25th thousand. 16 pp., Id.; or 9d. per doz. No. 7.-Capital and Land. 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On the same lines as Tract No. 8. id. each; or 9d. per doz. 16 pp., No. 19. What the Farm Laborer wants. 4 pp., 6 for id. ; or 1/- per 100. No. 20.-Questions for Poor Law Guardians. 4 PP., 6 for id.; or 1/- per 100. No. 21.-Questions for London Vestrymen. 4 pp., 6 for Id.; or Is. per 100. No. 22.-The Truth about Leasehold Enfranchisement, gives reasons why Socialists oppose the proposal. 4 pp., 6 for id.; or Is. per 100. No. 23.-The Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp., 1d. each; 9d. a dozen, The set post free for eighteen pence. The LECTURE LIST, containing the names of ninety lecturers, who offer their services gratuitously, may be obtained on application to the Secretary. Upwards of 1400 lectures were delivered by members during the year ended in March, 1891. |