PARKS IN TOWNS AND MUNICIPAL FORESTS 37 
£7095, the rest being rented from the Water Department, 
constitutes an attractive park. 
There are 25 parks under the control of the Corporation, 
with a total area of 876 acres. Besides the parks there 
are 36 recreation grounds, 532 acres in extent, and 19 
open spaces with an area of 16 acres. Mr. W. H. Morter, 
the Superintendent of Parks, tells me that to each acre 
of land in the parks and open spaces of Birmingham there 
are 625 inhabitants. 
In these parks and open spaces many innovations have 
been made. Concerts of good music and band playing are 
given; and in 1915 dancing in the open air was introduced 
with great success, Provision for organised games, whereby 
the children are taught how to play, was begun in 1912 at 
a cost of £250 to the Parks Committee, which was increased 
to £564 in 1914. The games are commenced on Ist May 
and last till the end of September in each year. In this 
movement, which has spread in the United States (2) with 
the most wonderful effects, Birmingham has been the 
pioneer in England. The poorer children in the slums, who 
knew nothing of the common games played by children in 
country districts, are now taught various games in most of 
the parks and recreation grounds. ‘This service is rendered 
by elementary teachers carefully chosen for their personality 
and their enthusiasm for games. Mr. Norman Chamberlain 
reports a marked effect of these games in improving sports- 
manship, manners, and cleanliness. Parents and friends 
attend in large numbers; and the children are drawn from 
the streets to the parks, with consequent improvement in 
their physical well-being. The play in the parks can be 
indulged in with greater freedom and less liability to 
accidents than that in the streets and waste grounds ; and is 
carried on in more cheerful and health-giving surroundings. 
The general policy of the Birmingham Parks Committee 
is worthy of imitation by similar bodies, and is summed up 
as follows by Mr. Norman Chamberlain : 
1. To save on administration and decorative effects and 
to spend on new sites. 
