502 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



practical assistance, although between the recognition of its needs 

 and the administration sufficiently powerful to translate them into 

 fact there is necessarily a gulf fixed. As it is recognised in a nation's 

 laws that in order to be effectual they must be not only passed by 

 Parliament but recognised and supported by the people, so a city 

 may have the best municipal laws in the world, but they may be a 

 dead letter unless there is sufficient power behind the administrators 

 to have them properly enforced. It is of course obvious that the 

 measures necessary to promote the welfare of the city as a whole 

 must necessarily largely be done at the expense of the private in- 

 terests of the citizens, and there is of course a nice question always 

 to adjust as to where the line shall be drawn. In the case of Con- 

 tinental municipalities, I think I am right in saying that the infringe- 

 ments of the municipal laws axe in many cities dealt with by the 

 police, and although this seems tO' be rather a drastic measure, yet 

 the result, so far as can be seen, seems to justify this being done. 



Past experience shows us that wherever public improvements 

 have been carried on in any large scale in European cities they have 

 been effected by strong autocratic power rather than by a popularly 

 elected body. To^ take a few instances in London alone. The 

 parks, which are the redeeming feature of the city, and which 

 counteract its otherwise unhealthy conditions, have, with one or two 

 exceptions, been bequeathed to us from Royal Preserves, and it is 

 safe to say if they had to owe their existence to municipal improve- 

 ment, they would probably be non-existent. Again, in the West- 

 End of London, in nearly all the districts where the streets are wide 

 and well arranged, they are on estates where they have been made 

 by private owners, mostly noblemen. Regent Street, our one street 

 with any pretences to harmonious lines, was carried out at the in- 

 stance of the Prince Regent, whilst the Thames Embankment, one 

 of our few fine features, was engineered by that most arbitrary of 

 bodies, the Commissioners of Sewers. 



One is almost forced to the conclusion that until the com- 

 munity becomes sufficiently educated, the most scientific form of 

 government, so far as the administration of cities is concerned, 

 should partake of the nature as much as possible of a benevolent 

 tyranny, or should that be impossible and a government by a Com- 

 mittee necessary, that Government must possess the widest power 

 and the strongest possible authority for enforcing their laws for the 

 benefit of the citizens. 



It seems humiliating tO' have toi gO' back here a century and a 

 half to show what can be done by strong autocratic government. 

 Almost all that we have in Cape Town which is worth preserving is 

 due to this cause. The straight, well-proportioned streets of the 

 lower part of the town, the sensible design and construction of the 

 houses both in town and countr}-, the beautiful groves and planta- 

 tions of trees, the clear relationship established and enforced be- 

 tween the white and black population, and alsO' the existence, I 

 believe I am right in saying, of most of our best laws. 



