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PROVE that man is divine, and it might be admitted that his laws may be divine.

THE Biblical nobleman-" Lord Howlong!"
THE earth is the Lord's-not the landlords'.

FOR eighteen hundred years there has been preaching enough done to stop crime, if such a thing could be done by preaching. It is now suggested that the best way to stop crime is to establish justice in the land. Here is what Mr. Wendell Phillips said :-"Open to man a fair field for his industry and secure to him its gains, and nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand would disdain to steal."

IN the close tenement houses of New York, during the hot summer months the babies are dying off like flies, and this for want of proper air, and space, and food, in a world of plenty. How long must this thing go on? How many more lives must be sacrificed in this battle of workers against usurpers?

ONCE upon a time a hive of bees supported some drones without feeling burdened thereby. But after a while the drones claimed ownership of the plants and flowers, and then the working bees began to know what hard times meant. In the great bee-hive we call human society, the landlords are the drones who keep men from the land, the plants, and the flowers.

AN eminent London divine says: "Food is only a bribe to the appetite." It is nothing of the kind; it is fuel to the fire. The days of begrimed, unwashed monks, and theologians preaching semi-starvation as a means of grace are drawing to a close. The welfare of the body is as essential to the happiness of man as that of the mind or soul, and must be fully regarded to produce high types of character. When the working classes wake up to realise what a goodly heritage they are being illegally robbed of, there will be fewer people bribing their appetites with narcotics and alcohol, and more enjoying those privileges Nature provides for all the children of men.

WHO are responsible for the Plan of Campaign but the men who last autumn refused to make concessions in order to save Irish lives which concessions they now make to keep themselves in office.

SIR H. WOLFF has arrived in London after his pleasure trip to Turkey at the expense of the suffering, down-trodden taxpayers of England.

SUCH is the superabundance of workmen in London, that during the busiest period of the erection of Jubilee platforms, notices appeared, "No Hands Wanted."

THE "artist" who carved the bust of Lord Beaconsfield, for which the Beaconsfield Club paid £350, is Count Gleichen, nephew of the Queen. The Club has gone to smash; the bust was sold, and realised £42. Moral: Beware of Royal "artists."

WITH commendable promptitude the Committee on the Army and Navy Estimates, appointed in June, have issued their first report, consisting of evidence respecting the army. The comment of the Daily News is this: "We may be as proud as ever of the men, but we may have to hang our heads over the management."

IN the Hornsey Division of Middlesex there are more than two thousand outside voters, who have a property qualification and are nonresident. These men poured in from the Stock Exchange and elsewhere, thus swamping the votes of genuine electors. At present a house can confer three votes, one to the ground landlord, one to the leaseholder, and one to the occupier. The property owners often have votes in a dozen constituencies, and thus override resident householders.

RECEIVED.

Kapunda Herald (Kapunda), Labour Tribune, Canadian Labor Reformer (Toronto), Scottish Highlander, Highland News, Carpenter (Philadelphia), Weekly Star (San Francisco), True Witness (Montreal), The Workman (Michigan), Credit Foncier of Sinaloa (Hammonton, New Jersey), Church Reformer, Temperance Record, Victorian Freeman (Melbourne), Honesty (Melbourne), Preston Pilot, Le Prolétariat (Paris), Irish World (New York), Evansville Courier (Evansville, Ind.), Standard (New York), Crown of Glory (Newark, N.J.), John Swinton's Paper (New York), Workmen's Advocate (New Haven), Irish Trade (Limerick), United Ireland, Brotherhood, Newcastle Chronicle, Melbourne Argus, Jubilee Book (Church of England Temperance Society), Sea Music (Walter Scott), Early English Poetry (Walter Scott, Newcastle-on-Tyne), Defoe's Captain Singleton (The Camelot Series, Walter Scott), Life of Carlyle, by Richard Garnett (Walter Scott).

VALUE OF LAND AND BUILDINGS IN THE
METROPOLIS.

THE Parliamentary Committee on town
holdings has sat through two sessions,
and is about to present the evidence to
the House without a report. For the
opinions and recommendations of the
Committee we shall have to wait another
year. This delay is to be regretted; it
appears to be unnecessary, as the subjects
referred to the Committee are of pressing
importance and do not involve very com-
plicated considerations.

The question of leasehold enfranchisement is tolerably plain to an ordinary mind. Injustice and difficulty arise from the fact that landlords, who are necessarily monopolists, often decline to allow land to be used for building except on a lease, and with the condition that the buildings erected become the property of the landlord at the termination of the period. When the lease of a given locality is about to fall in, industry is paralysed by uncertainty, and the landlord, if he renews the lease, often exacts not only the value of the land and buildings, but adds a large sum in consideration of the business goodwill which attaches to the spot. Under these circumstances the fruits of personal industry are confiscated, and the development of trade is prevented. The leading facts respecting leaseholds could be collected by any business man in a month, and a person of ordinary intelligence could say after consideration for a week or two whether in his opinion existing evils can or cannot be mitigated by legislation.

Our Parliamentary Committee postpones the consideration of the evidence until the third year of its existence. This delay probably arises from the fact that the Committee is largely composed of men who are directly interested in the existing state of things and are in no hurry to make amendment. In the ordinary affairs of life we seek judicial assistance from impartial and uninterested persons, but when a land question has to be considered the tribunal is usually composed largely of landowners.

The taxation of ground rents, which has also been referred to the Committee, is even less complicated than the enfranchisement of leaseholds. It is, in fact,

one of the simplest subjects for consideration. House property consists of two factors, the land and the building. The land is supplied by nature and the building is added by industry. Value comes to land without effort on the owner's part. Buildings are the result of laborious effort. On which property should taxes be placed?

At present land is not taxed or rated unless it becomes the subject of industry. If it be cultivated or built upon, the value is included in the assessment, but the cultivator or builder is required to pay the amount. In no case is the landowner called upon for any rate, or any tax except the income-tax.

The consequences of the present system, and a method for its partial cure, are pointed out by the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, who report as follows:

"At present land available for building in the neighbourhood of our populous centres, though its capital value is very great, is probably producing a small yearly return until it is let for building. The owners of land are rated, not in relation to the real value but to the actual annual income. They can thus afford to keep their land out of the market, and to part with only small quantities, so as to raise the price beyond the natural monopoly price which the land would command by its advantages of position. Meantime, the general expenditure of the town on improvements is increasing the value of their property. If this land were rated at, say 4 per cent. on its selling value, the owners would have a more direct incentive to part with it to those who are desirous of building, and a two-fold advantage would result to the community. First, all the valuable property would contribute to the rates, and thus the burden on the occupiers would be diminished by the increase in the rateable property. Secondly, the Owners of the building land would be forced to offer their land for sale, and thus their competition with one another would bring down the price of building land, and so diminish the tax in the shape of ground-rent or price paid for land which is now levied on urban enterprise by the adjacent landowners, a tax, be it remembered, which is no recompense for any industry or expenditure on their part, but it is the natural result of the industry and activity of the townspeople themselves."

The Commissioners thus show that freedom from taxation enables landowners to keep back from use the land which they control, and thus they eventually obtain higher prices than would otherwise be possible.

The argument used by the Commissioners will be best illustrated by an actual fact. Brockwell Park, near Herne Hill Station, consists of 100 acres of land, which, twenty-five years ago, were worth £500; they are now worth £1,500 per acre. The increase in value has been £4,000 per annum. The owner pays in rates £81 per annum, being assessed at the supposed agricultural value of the land. If the plan recommended by the Commissioners were adopted, the owner would be rated at 4 per cent. on £150,000, or £6,000 per annum, and would pay in rates about £1,525 per annum instead of £81. This land is now being let for building at 8s. per foot frontage, and the moment it comes into the occupation of tradesmen or working-men, it will be assessed at its full value. Why should it not be taxed at that value while it remains in the enjoyment and possession of the original landlord?

But

This

Even thus the landlord would benefit, without labour, to more than double the extent he would be called upon to pay in rates. The tax upon him would not check industry, for he has exercised none. a tax cannot be placed upon buildings without checking development. may be also illustrated by reference to a fact. Opposite the entrance to Brockwell Park are some small shops, and behind these shops are railway arches. Some of these arches are rented by the shopkeepers. One of the shopkeepers desired to enclose the open end of the archway in order to protect his goods from the weather. He proceeded to enclose it, but during the progress of the work he ascertained that if the archway were enclosed the rates payable would be increased 25s. per annum. This he could not afford to pay, and therefore stopped the enclosure. The foundation of this small work may now be seen without the intended structure, and small as the instance is, it shows the paralysing effect of taxing industry.

Probably no one will defend the present state of things. But many persons object to any change in our system of taxation because such change disturbs values and bears with more or less hardship on recent investors. It is quite true that no alteration in taxation can be made without inflicting some undeserved losses upon individuals, but against such losses we have to regard the paralysis of trade, the

suffering, the injustice, the overcrowding, the starvation, which arises from the existing system, and which must increase and intensify if that system be continued.

In order to ascertain the actual value of land and the value of buildings in the Metropolis, information has been sought from land agents and others as to the terms of recent leases or sales.

Particulars have been ascertained of 59 cases, and it is believed that these examples give a fair indication of the actual value of land throughout the Metropolis. They represent various districts. and circumstances. The cases have not been selected. All the instances of which details could be obtained have been used. Where the rack rent could not be ascertained, and the cost of the building was known, 8 per cent. on the outlay has been allowed, and this added to the ground rent has been given as the rack rent.

Two cases have been introduced of old buildings where the rent paid really represents only the value of the land. The buildings are scarcely worth keeping in repair. The property would be worth quite as much if they were removed. A good deal of property in London is in a similar condition, and this fact must be taken into account in estimating the value of land.

Very much higher ground rents are paid than appear in any of the cases named. Instances have been given before the Town Holdings Committee in which the ground rent absorbed for many years all the rent obtained for the property, and it was shown by the evidence of Mr. Ryde that 30s. to 40s. per foot per annum is sometimes paid for land. This sum represents two or three times over the value of any ordinary buildings which could be placed upon it. No such extreme instances have been met with in the present enquiry, and therefore none such appear in the table. On the other hand it is probable that land has been recently let for building on terms lower than any instance mentioned.

It must be borne in mind that the object of the enquiry is not to ascertain the amount of ground rent paid, but the purpose is to discover the actual value of land as distinguished from the cost or value of the buildings placed upon the land.

TABLE SHOWING THE VALUE OF LAND AND THE VALUE OF BUILDINGS IN THE METROPOLIS IN 59

...

CASES.

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ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, formerly the site of St. Paul's
School. Let by the Mercers' Company, 1886
SAVILE-ROW, No. 15

...

PARK-LANE, Nos. 42, 43, 44. Leased in 1885
Corner of EASTCHEAP and Philpot-lane.
Drapers' Company about 1882

...

Lease from

...

HEDDON-STREET, behind Piccadilly. Leased 1885. Ware

...

...

...

...

houses WHITECHAPEL (Middens-street). Warehouses EASTCHEAP (Botolph House). Ground rent just sold at 26 years' purchase VICTORIA-STREET, WestminsteR (Marlborough Mansions). Ground rent recently sold for 24 years' purchase DENMARK HILL, 3 houses. Ground rent recently sold by auction at 24 years' purchase

Land.

£ 2,370

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300 1,500

3,300

8,000

376

...

776

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170

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GOSWELL-ROAD, CLERKENWELL (Charterhouse-buildings)
HAMPSTEAD (Church-place). Ground rent recently sold at

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...

GRAY'S INN-ROAD (Duncan-buildings). Ground rent recently

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...

TULSE HILL (16 houses, situated in Court-road, Christchurch-
road, Thurlow Park-road, Perran-road, Palace-road,
Lancaster-road, Norwood-road, Chatsworth-road, Ro-
mola-road, and Deerbrook-road). Particulars supplied
by Messrs. Bayliss and Co., Tulse-hill
OLD BROAD STREET. Original ground rent, £400 a year, has
now 38 years to run. It has just been sold for £15,000
BLACKFRIARS (Victoria-walk). Ground rent, 31 years to run,
at £450 a year. For this lease £17,000 has been recently
offered and declined
NEW BRIDGE-STREET, No. 5 (old building). House not worth
keeping in repair, but allow for it £50 per annum, and
the balance of the rack rent represents the value of the
land
SHOP IN FLEET STREET (old building). Rent 300, allow
for house £75
TWENTY-THREE HOUSES, as per list from Temperance Build-
ing Society of cases brought under their notice during
the last few days
JEWIN-STREET, No. 18. Lease 79 years, ground rent £140,
sold for £1,400, which at 8 per cent. would give a rental
of £112 per annum above the ground rent
STOCKWELL-ROAD (Tramway Stables). Ground rent £70,
outlay £2,000. No frontage, access through an archway

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333

216

600

450

300 150

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The above table shows the annual amount of ground rent to be £16,176 and the rack rent £43,511.

The question then arises what deduction must be made from the rack rents in order to arrive at the amounts actually paid. The gross rateable value of the Metropolis is a little over £37,000,000 per annum and the net rateable value £30,000,000. Of the value assessed 93 per cent. is collected, thus showing a reduction of 27 per cent. The rack rents must be reduced in nearly the same proportion, but in order to be within safe limits 20 per cent. only is deducted from the rack rents, thus reducing the £43,511 to £34,809.

With the land rents a different process must be adopted. In many cases landlords are paid ground rents on property which does not appear on the rate book, either because the buildings have not yet been let, or from their removal and rebuilding. There is much land of great value for building not yet let, and which should be rated at its value in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commissioners on the Housing of the Poor. The landlord enjoys not only the annual income but also the reversion, and large profits on dilapidations, re-lettings, and other perquisites. On these considerations we add 20 per cent. to the value and bring up the total of the land rents in the examples given from £16,176 per annum to £19,411.

Deducting this amount (£19,411) from the rack rents (£34,809) there remains for the buildings, £15,398 per annum.

To discover the annual value of land and the value of buildings throughout the Metropolis we must multiply the examples given by 861 and a fraction, which will raise the total to £30,000,000 (the net rateable value). We thus see that the annual amount payable is :-For land, £16,728,830; Buildings, £13,271,170. Total,

£30,000,000.

But to discover the true value of land and buildings we must capitalise the annual value of each at the same rate as a purchaser would pay.

For land, buyers will usually give 25 years' purchase. For buildings, 16 years' is perhaps a high average rate, therefore

THE ANNUAL AND CAPITAL VALUE OF LAND AND BUILDINGS IS
Land (annual value)... £16,728,830 X 25
Buildings (annual value)

13,271,170 ×

In London the industry and enterprise of the people (not the enterprise of landlords) has brought up the value of land to £418,220,750, and upon this enormous property the owners who enjoy the income therefrom pay in taxation annually less than half-a-million, whereas builders pay more than seven millions a year in taxation for property, the value of which is only worth £212,398,270. Thus the

16

...

...

...

Capital value £418,220,750
Capital value

...

212,338,720

industrious builder is taxed fourteen times as much as the idle landlord on half the value.

To state the case is to show its injustice, but the injury arising from the system is even greater than the injustice, and it is not easy to estimate the loss and suffering occasioned by a plan of taxation which paralyses industry and affords encouragement to idleness.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION.

I HAVE just been travelling in the United States, where the land and labour questions are at the front, a matter which cannot fail to be of interest to every other country of the civilised world.

The agitation which is gaining strength every day for increased taxation of land values, together with the Treasury accumulations of money from Customs' dues, forces upon legislatures the removal of taxation from industry and the abolition of the tariff.

It is evident to anyone who will think clearly about it that the first country which adopts the policy of direct taxation advocated by Mr. George will, other things being equal, rapidly advance to the foremost place among nations, and either compel all others to adopt the same or have their trade ruined.

The people of such a country can manufacture more cheaply than any other, and can carry on agricultural and all other pursuits to better advantage also,

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