SEARCH FOR LAND LAWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 51, 23 November 1907, Page 10

SEARCH FOR LAND LAWS.

Tlw real reasons which prompted Mr. John Burns's recent visit to Franco and Germany have not yet been given to tho world, writes » correspondent, yot they closely affect the proposed legislation of tho Government relating to land valuation, purchase', and town planning.- The visit was undertaken in order that-Mr. Burns might "lift" from'the'German social s,vi,tcm the best features for : the purpose of engrafting them upon our own. n In the .turning session of I'arliament the Government will make * determined'attempt to introduce Bills making it impossible for to develop estates without due regard to tho convenience of the inhabitants living in the older portions of the town. TlioiLand. Valuation .Bill will provide for the registration of all land at the valuo fixed by the owner, who will be called upon to pay tiio laud tax and local rates upon it upon the basis of 'his own valuation. • By tho provisions of another Bill owners will no longer be able to niako roads which will lead to rjowhore and lay out estates regardless of outlets or inlets". Local authorities will'not be able to pass plans for houses.which havo an. insufficient amount of light and air- space. A further Bill will give county councils— and in dofault of'thoir acting tho Government—power to expropriate land at the owner's registered valuation for the purpose of the erection of cottages in rural districts. It was for the purpose of ascertaining the virtues of French and German urban and rural housing and their effect upon" the physique of the people, that' Mr; .Burns* spent on* of the hardest holidays ono could imagine. In. Germany his activity astonished tho officials, his thirst for information was insatiable, and he looked so unlike a < Minister! In tho morning, when out alone, he woro tho bowler hat and tho short jacket 'of tho .ordinary Englishman. On formal visits of in* spection ho donned a morning coat, which is dcclnrod by his friends in tho Houso of Commons to bo one of tho smartest in cut and fit at St. Stephen's. In the ovonings howas besieged with invitations to dinners, andiwhoi' ho accepted those ho appoared-in regulation ovening dress. It was on theso occasions, according to pnvato accounts from .German sources, that ho disillusioned tho Gorman officers, officials, and Ministers as to tho type of Minister he really is. Tho Germans expected to find n noisy, uncultured agitator,, with \rild views on social and political questions. Instead of this no one could "draw?* him on politics. He was a keen listener but: a bad talkor on social questions—a man' out to learn and not to teach. •, -.-