io Mr. Arthur H. Muir on 



by dividing the population in each year into the total debt as 

 given on second diagram. The drop in 1898 is caused by 

 the debt having been divided by the population for that year, 

 which was increased by the inhabitants of the added area. 



Diagram No. 5 gives a view of the progress of taxation during 

 the past 1 5 years. 



In any rapidly growing city the number of immigrants coming 

 to take advantage of the positions offered must fill the municipality 

 with many who take little or no interest in its public affairs. 

 They are in it but not of it, and are content to leave all such 

 matters in other hands. Now the tendency of such apathy is to 

 permit public bodies to be run by interested cliques for purposes 

 other than the good of the community. If, under such condi- 

 tions, the personnel of the governing bodies depreciates, and 

 administration is not so efficient as it should be, the citizens of 

 course have themselves to blame. 



A difficulty is always present which helps to make many voters 

 apathetic as regards civic affairs, namely : — that they pay no direct 

 taxes. It is true of course that in the long run, and on the 

 average, the taxes levied on the properties in which they live come 

 out of their pockets, but this is not apparent to many of them- 

 The result is that frequently they demand expenditure on projects 

 in the hope of an immediate benefit for which, however, they 

 themselves have ultimately to pay in increased taxation. 



Another instance of this tendency is the cry that because one 

 Ward has something another Ward must get it also ; because one 

 Ward has Public Baths another Ward must have it ; because one 

 Ward has a Branch Library another must be provided in another 

 Ward. Such a policy would build up a most serious burden on 

 the ratepayers. 



To load up our local authorities with a multiplicity of duties 

 further increases the time which is required of the city's repre- 

 sentatives. It makes it more and more of a tax upon those men 

 who undertake those duties, and it tends to prevent the men who 

 are most competent for the position from accepting office. The 

 tendency is towards a decreasing efficiency in the representatives. 



