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 1st 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. 



