Protection from fire is afforded by sepa rately organized fire brigades, having no con nection with the police. These are in all cases exclusively under the control of the local au thorities ; in London, the County Council; in the municipal boroughs, the Municipal Corporation; in other places, the Urban District Council, or the Parish Council. In London, the fire brig ade is second in size and cost only to that of New York, and it is not clear whether, for the particular conditions of its task, its efficiency is second to that of any in the world. Its strength is nearly 1500 men, and its cost over a quarter of a million sterling annually to ward which the fire insurance companies have to contribute a trifling percentage of the value i they severally insure in London, and the na tional exchequer unconditionally contributes 110,000 a year in respect of the large amount ofinational property in the metropolis. Some of the provincial cities have also salaried pro fessional fire brigades, often highly efficient. In less populous centres, according to the un fettered discretion of the particular local au thority in each case, the fire protection passes by insensible gradations (some salaried profes sionals, men in other occupations partially paid for fire service, or unpaid but organized volun teers) down to the mere provision of a hand pump and buckets, to be used by any zealous citizen. Protection against fire in theatres and music halls, and against such methods of build ing houses generally as might facilitate danger ous fires, is afforded, in the metropolis, by the stringent regulations and inspection by the Lon don County Council under its special building act. In other towns the Municipal Corporation takes such action of a similar kind as it thinks fit, by way of by-laws. Protection against drowning is afforded in the bathing season by the boats and boatmen provided by only a few seaside municipal corporations. The lighthouse service is maintained at national expense by the Trinity House, an ancient corporation, now essentially a branch of the national executive (Board of Trade).
2. Locomotion.— In so far as locomotion is not abandoned to private enterprise (railways, most river steamers, some tramways, omni buses, etc.), the whole provision for this service is left in England to the local authorities. The maintenance of roads, now assisted by the na tional department styled the Road Board, is performed, over every part of England and Wales, by one kind of local governing body or another. Within London, it is the council of the particular metropolitan borough; in the mu nicipal boroughs, it is the corporation; in other towns, it is the urban district council; and wher ever none of these authorities exist, it is the rural district council which is responsible for this service. The method and standard adopted in each locality is left to the unfettered discre tion of its local authority, which (for the 100, 0130 miles of by-roads) has itself to bear all the expense. But for what are deemed main roads (apart from London and the principal cities which are called county boroughs), the county council either itself undertakes the service or else contributes to the minor local authority a sum agreed between them as the cost of ke• ing up such main roads, of which there are 30, 000 miles. The average amount is mile an nually spent on road maintenance s main roads f60; by-roads, i20; but these sums are largely increased in the growing mileage of roads now treated by preparations of tar so as to be adapted to the rubber tires of automobiles.
The county council, outside London and the county boroughs, moreover, maintain the bridges over streams, etc., with some exceptions. Where, as in urban districts, the road becomes a street, its maintenance naturally becomes more costly, and altogether new needs of pav ing, cleansing, and lighting arise, to be dealt with and paid for in each case by the local authority concerned, at its unfettered discre tion. Further developments of the same serv ice, undertaken under special powers, are the short lengths of canal of the Exeter and York municipal corporations, and the extensive canal navigation owned and operated by the Glouces tershire county council; the harbors, piers, and docks maintained by the Port of London au thority, the Mersey Docks and Harbors Board and about 60 other local authorities; the nu merous bridges over the Thames, constructed and maintained partly by the Corporation of the City of London, partly by the London County Council; similar bridges over rivers in other cities nearly always maintained by the local municipal corporation; the great tunnels under the Thames constructed by the London County Council; a few old-fashioned ferry services maintained (as at Saltash, Middles brough, and Sunderland) by various local au thorities; the development of the ferry into a moving "floating bridge)) by the corporation of Southampton; and into river steamboat services across the Mersey by the Corporation of Bir kenhead, and across the Thames at Woolwich by the London County Council. In other direc tions the road has been developed into a tram way; and cars— steam or electric—are now owned by more than a hundred local author ities, and operated under municipal management by an ever increasing number of them (in 1918 nearly 50), including the valuable miles of track worked by the London County Council, with gross receipts from fares which, in a normal year may be put at more than i.2,000,000 ster ling. In a number of cities the municipal cor poration has obtained exceptional power to run an omnibus service in conjunction with the tramways. In all other cases the omnibus service is left to private enterprise. A few bridges constructed by groups of capitalists, with power to charge tolls, are still in the same position, as are most of the canals, and all the railways and coast steamboats. The 19th cen tury saw a marked tendency toward freeing from toll the use of the various means of locomotion maintained by local authorities. Their roads and streets — once barred to all but pedestrians by tollgates — are now invariably free; the bridges, on many of which even pedestrians were charged a toll, are now (with the exception of a few capitalistic ventures, still in private hands) uniformly free; the tun nets under the Thames are free to vehicles as well as to pedestrians; the steamboat service by which the London County Council main tains the Woolwich ferry is equally free; while the tendency in the municipal tramway, canal and steamboat services is to charge only the smallest fares or tolls e.g. "halfpenny fares)" for short stages.