A supervisor of midwives was appointed Nov., 1914, to investigate and report on practice of midwifery and has continued to direct work of midwives, who attend 50% of the births of the city.
Christmas Trees, Municipal: The first tree, a Norway spruce, 48 ft. high, with spread of 30 ft., was set up in Military Park, Christmas, 1913. Illuminated at night with 800 electric lights, and 50 in star shape at top. Week of festival followed. Similar festivities held around trees set up in the park next 2 years.
In 1916 a great Norway spruce was set up in south lawn fronting City Hall. Inside the building, a smaller tree was placed in rotunda for week of festival. These City Hall Christmas Festivals brought together old and young, rich and poor, for singing and games and Christmas good cheer of all kinds. For the past 2 years there has been no municipal Christmas Tree, but Christmas festivities have been held in the City Hall.
Churches: Items of church history,—buildings erected, parish houses annexed, missions established, etc.,—are too numerous to be recorded in a brief, general outline. Detailed sketches of individual churches have been written by Rev. Joseph F. Folsom and appended to Urquhart's History of Newark, Vol. II., pp. 949-1020.
City Home: See [Delinquent Children].
City Plan Commission: "City planning means development of our city according to carefully prepared plans; stopping all further random development, all haphazard extensions, and all improvements for certain favored sections or limited localities. It means considering every suggested change or improvement as to its effect on the entire city and all suburbs and nearby towns.
"City planning is for all, and especially for the man of modest income. It means better housing and attractive and healthful surroundings for the humblest homes. It means securing for the cheapest tenement the sunny, airy, sanitary conditions which health, science and common sense demand.
"It means a City Efficient, a City Clean and a City Enjoyable."
An act providing for city plan commissions passed N. J. Legislature and became a law March 30, 1911. On June 1, Mayor Haussling appointed the Newark City Plan Commission. For its investigations and work, $10,000 was annually appropriated until the adoption of Commission Government. Under this form of government there were no further appropriations for special boards and the City Plan Commission went out of existence, Dec. 31, 1917.
Some of the subjects studied and reported on by the Commission aside from street arrangement, were Centre Market, Housing Problems, Municipal Recreation, Interurban Improvement and Harbor Development. The Commission issued "City Planning for Newark" and "A Comprehensive Plan". Both are valuable documents and rich in Newark facts.