CITY OF BOSTON. The majority of the Commissioners appointed by His Honor the Mayor, in pursuance of the foregoing order, respectfully submit their REPORT. TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF BOSTON: The Commission appointed January 3d, 1873, was not organized until the 29th of the same month, in consequence of the resignation of J. Tisdale Bradlee, Esq. On this latter date an organization was effected. At various times subsequently meetings were held, and committees from the towns of Brookline, Brighton and West Roxbury, and a Commission from the City of Charlestown, appointed to advocate the annexation of their towns and city, were received and heard. Statistical tables, calculated to give all pertinent information concisely, and yet as fully as possible, were made up. As the City of Boston had no map that would convey a comprehensive idea of the geography of our city and surrounding towns, the Commission early prepared one, under the direction of the City Surveyor, Thomas W. Davis, Esq., representing all the territory embraced in the order, which your commissioners offer herewith, as affording valuable assistance in the consideration of the subject under advisement. The several towns and cities reported upon have been visited on different occasions, and inquiry has been pushed in every avenue of research open to us, in order that all the light attainable might be thrown upon the questions involved in the scheme presented. Hamilton A. Hill, Esq., appointed on the Commission in place of J. Tisdale Bradlee, Esq., resigned, having made arrangements to engage in business in England, left this country in the latter part of April. Before going he strenuously urged the Commission to make their report in full immediately; but as no action had been taken in the matter, and important legislation on the subject was at that time pending at the State House, and time had not elapsed sufficient to obtain a knowledge of the facts requisite to an advised conclusion, and no opportunity having been offered of visiting the towns and cities under consideration, and particularly as no decisive action could be taken in the premises before fall, the majority of the Commission deemed any report at that time premature and injudicious. But Mr. Hill, having written a report, submitted it to the Board, and this, so far as it recommends the annexation of Brookline, Brighton and West Roxbury, the undersigned unqualifiedly approve. The majority of the Commission, however, feel constrained to say, that, having entered upon their duties without bias or prejudice, they justify any conclusions in which they may differ from Mr. Hill, as the result solely of the investigation they have given the subject. The question of the advantage or disadvantage of the consolidation of several cities and towns, or the annexation to any one of them of all the rest, is not one which in the abstract admits of much profitable discussion; and the circumstances peculiar to individual instances will almost solely direct the judgments of men, whenever the proposition for or against attracts their notice. It may be said in general, that consolidation means strength, independent existence, rapidity of action; consolidation increases the importance and powers of the city, but diminishes those of the citizen; divides the number required to legislate, but enlarges the force necessary to execute; subrogates officers to their offices; renders abuses of power rare but momentous; affords opportunities for great, rather than many breaches of trust; nullifies the influence of small factions, and destroys many facilities for petty tyrannies and wrongs. But of these things it is not our duty to treat. The task assigned to us is specific: "To carefully examine the subject of the annexation of certain towns and cities to the City of Boston, in all its bearings, and to report upon the financial, industrial and sanitary questions concerned in the matter." In the furtherance of this object, a copy of the statistical tables before alluded to was sent to the clerk of each of the following cities and towns: Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, Charlestown, t and, though not included in the order, to the town clerks of Accompanying the questions was the request that the clerk would fill out the answers and return them to the Commission. In most instances this was done, and we take this early opportunity of expressing our thanks, not only to the clerks, but to the other officials whom we have been obliged to consult, and that frequently, and in busy hours, both for the indispensable information they have given, and the uniform courtesy with which they have rendered us every assistance in their power. The questions and answers, with such other relevant matter as could be incorporated in the tables, are appended. As three of the towns enumerated in the order, namely, Brookline, Brighton, and West Roxbury, are without any adequate supply of water, the wants of Brookline, in this respect, being already pressing, and as the subject is one that has been regarded as of vital importance by the municipalities of all time, we have felt justified in devoting a portion of our report to a consideration of the relevancy of this subject to the whole plan submitted to us. GENERAL ANNEXATION. Aside from the reasons suggested in connection with the water question, and independent of the advantages to be secured by receiving any one of the towns or cities named in the order, some points may be presented in favor of the annexation of all of them. By this means we would establish concert of action in projecting and carrying out improvements in which the several communities have a common interest: reclaiming and filling marsh lands; constructing systems of sewerage; laying out main thoroughfares; locating engine-houses, police-stations, and school-houses; and, in brief, in conducting the business of nearly every department of a town or municipal government, particularly that having charge of the public health, may be mentioned; for it must be admitted that the spread of contagious diseases cannot be checked by the existence of imaginary lines, and the consequences of a condition of things in one of the towns or cities under discussion which would engender an epidemic there, must, to an almost equal degree, be borne by all the rest. The Charles River is to the City of Boston what the lungs are to the human body. Yet, into this stream, not only our own city, but Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham, Brighton, West Roxbury, and Charlestown, already empty more or less of their sewage; and Brookline is constructing a large sewer to contribute the drainage of that town to the general mass of filth; this, too, notwithstanding the remonstrances of authorities on the subject whose evidence it is dangerous to reject; who denounce the system, or want of system, at present pursued, and warn us that the river is already overloaded. This condition of things undoubtedly furnishes a factor, not inconsiderable, in swelling the death-rates of our city, in which respect Boston suffers by comparison with nearly every large city in the land. The rapid multiplication of buildings upon the Back Bay and adjacent portions of the city renders it imperative that early action be taken to prevent further encroachments upon the purity of these waters; but there can be no hope of any comprehensive plan for protection in this direction except by overlooking and regulating all the sewage entering into the river from both its banks. Either State legislation must be invoked, vesting ample power in a Board of Health to control the entire district, or the territory must come under the management of one municipal government. As bearing upon this we quote from the Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health, pp. 6, 7, 62, 63, 450, 451: “SEWERAGE OF THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT. In connection with the investigation concerning Miller's River, and the practicable plan of sewerage reported by the Commission, we would respectfully invite the attention of the Legislature to the need of some comprehensive and harmonious system for the drainage of the whole Metropolitan District. Cambridge and Somerville, in the difficulties they have encountered by the joint use of an insufficient outlet for their rage, may fairly represent other cities and towns in the immediate vic of Boston, whose trouble will come very soon from similar cause. to A competent engineer, surveying the whole territory without regard e limitation of arbitrary lines representing the limit of jurisdiction single municipality, has, as we believe, solved a problem which might have vexed Cambridge and Somerville for a generation. At the of |