The municipality owns the building and supports the school. Sir James
Henderson, editor of the _Daily News-Letter_, who was lord mayor of
Belfast at the time that the school was established, is the chairman of
the committee in charge, and is to be congratulated upon a great
success. The attitude of the labor unions, which at first regarded the
enterprise with distrust, is becoming more friendly, and they permit
their members to avail themselves of the facilities provided by the
school. The education of apprentices to trades without limitations is
still a question of controversy. The attitude of the employers is more
favorable, because nearly all of them recognized increased efficiency
among their journeymen who have attended the school, and many of them
are paying a part or the whole of the fees of all their workmen who will
attend regularly the classes in their respective trades. The investment
is, therefore, a good one for the city of Belfast. The technical school
will certainly result in the improvement of the efficiency of the
mechanics of the city.
Belfast has quite a number of municipal utilities. The city owns the gas
works, the electric lighting plant, and all the street car lines, as
well as the water supply. The gas works have proven to be a very
profitable undertaking, and gas is furnished for sixty-seven cents a
cubic foot, with a fair profit to the city. A municipal electric plant
lights the streets and furnishes power for the street railway lines and
also pays a profit. The street railway line, however, is not a
profitable investment and is running behind under municipal management
for several reasons.
The municipality also owns a large hall that will seat 2,097 persons,
and a smaller hall that will seat 330. Each of these halls is rented for
concerts, lectures, assemblies, exhibitions, conventions, balls, and for
other purposes at a rate of twenty dollars per night for the smaller one
and sixty dollars for the larger one, including light, heat, and
attendance, and there is a good income from both. It also has a series
of organ recitals in the large hall every winter, which are attended by
audiences varying from six hundred to two thousand, who pay a nominal
price for admission--from six to twelve cents, according to the
seat--and thus the entertainments support themselves. The city also
owns a number of private bathing houses, situated in different parts of
the town, for which tickets can be bought for two cents and four cents,
according to the accommodations. These are largely patronized by the
working people, and are self-supporting. Altogether the municipal
management of Belfast is admirable and affords examples which other
cities may study with profit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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