creation of the city
water-system has also been excessively costly, and the total cost up
to the 31st of January 1908 of the works remaining to the city after
the creation of the metropolitan board in 1898 was about $17,000,000.
The metropolitan water board--of whose expenditures Boston bears only
a share--expended from 1895 to 1900 $20,693,870; and the system was
planned to consume finally probably 40 millions at least. The city
park system proper had cost $16,627,033 up to 1899 inclusive; and the
metropolitan parks $13,679,456 up to 1907 inclusive. There are no
municipal lighting-plants; but the companies upon which the city
depends for its service are (with all others) subject to the control
of a state commission. In 1885 a state law placed a limit on the
contractable debt and upon the taxation rate of the city. Revenues
were not realized adequate to its lavish undertakings, and loans were
used to meet current expenses. The limits were altered subsequently,
but the net debt has continued to rise. In 1822 it was $100,000; in
1850, $6,195,144; in 1886, $24,712,820; in 1904, $58,216,725; in 1907,
$70,781,969 (gross debt, $104,206,706)--this included the debt of
Suffolk county which in 1907 was $3,517,000. The chief objects for
which the city debt was created were in 1907, in millions of dollars:
highways, 24.07, parks, 16.29, drainage and sewers, 15.05, rapid
transit, 13.57 and water-works, 4.53. Boston paid in 1907 36% of all
state taxes, and about 33, 62, 47 and 79% respectively of the
assessments for the metropolitan sewer, parks, boulevards and water
services. About a third of its revenue goes for such uses or for
Suffolk county expenditures over which it has but limited control. The
improvement of the Back Bay and of the South Boston flats was in
considerable measure forced upon the city by the commonwealth. The
debt per capita is as high as the cost of current administration
relatively to other cities. The average interest rate on the city
obligations in 1907 was about 3.7%. The city's tax valuation in 1907
was $1,313,471,556 (in 1822, $42,140,200; in 1850, $180,000,500), of
which only $242,606,856 represented personalty; although in the
judgment of the city board of trade such property cannot by any
possibility be inferior in value to realty.

_Population._--Up to the War of Independence the population was not only
American, but it was in its id