Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1905. THE LEASE IN PERPETUITY.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 14, 17 July 1905, Page 4

Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1905. THE LEASE IN PERPETUITY.

While we regret that half the members of the Land Commission should have joined in recommending the dissipation of the public estate by tho concession of the freehold even to the holders of leases which at present contain no right of purchase, there is some compensation an the fact that they have seriously discredited their aavocaey by extending it to a feature of out land laws which is quite outrageous in its absurdity. So far as tho freehold goes public opinion is very much, divided, and though neither town nor country can bo said to be solid on the subject, the inclination of the former is generally towards the leasehold, while that of the latter is tho other way. Bub wo have never had any reason to suppose that eitlicr in town or in any country there was any appreciable body of opinion that favoured the hapdess absurdity of the "eternal lease," nor should wo haro tlKraglrt it pousible to find five representative and responsible men of standing- anywhere who would favour the continuance of this idiotic tenure. Conservatives and reformers are nine times •0.-ot of ten agreed to denounce a system which combines the defects of both tho freehold and tho leasehold, with tho advantages of neither. The 999 years' lease fails to give tho tenant t tho sentimental value, the senso of ownership, the independence which ho exjpocts to find, in the freehold, while at the -axmo time it deprives the State of the unearned increment, for all practical purposes aa completely as though the land had been sold outright. It is a grave reproach upon a sano people that such a provision should ever nave found its way oil to the statute book, and that having got thero, it should have been patiently acquiesced in for thirteen years. But tho shame is increased when a technical majority of a Commission appointed on the presumed ground of its special competence to deal with, the whole field of land administration should deliberately recoia-

mend the perpetuation of such a monstrosity. The reasoning by ■which, tlie recom^ mendation is supported is singular bothi 1 for what it included and: ■what it omits. Not a w-ord is said to prove that the -State profits by such a preposterous baigadn, or that a rental calculated on a basis of four per cent, of the present value will continue to be a fair rental for even ninety years of the nine hundred and ninety-nine. Indeed, the argument to which the Chairman of the Commis'SioD and four of his colleagues have put their names concedes by implication that neither of these contentions is maintainable. This argument mentions the obvious analogy of the case of a privatei landlord granting such a lease, but brushes it aside at once as-dallacious ; "It is contended that no private landlord would bo so -unwise as to grant a 999 years' lease without a periodical revaluation clause, and that inferentiaHy it would bo equally unwise for the State to do so. The parallel does not hold." How can men who if any one of their number elected to deal in this way with his own property would regard Mm' as an idiot be justified ii* following the same course in their corporate capacity with regard to the property of the community? This is the reply provided in the majority report. "The private landlord gets his fixed rent only; the State gets a fixed rental, together with the constitutional right of a further levy in the form of taxation, unlimited, except by the sense of justice of the people ; and as this power lies in the hands of the people's Government, the plea for revaluation, with its disturbing and injurious influences, is not well founded. " It is amazing that men wflio stickle for the rights of private property and declare that "any serious attempt upon the inviolability of the compact by the State or the State's tenantry is believed to be impossible In. any British community" should seriously urge the power of taxation as a means of redressing any inadequacy in the rental fixed by the State at the beginning -of a term of 999 years. We have no hesitation, in saying that to invoke such a principle is to advocate confiscation with all the "disturbing and injurious influences" which these Commissioners* attribute to revaluation, and with the far more perturbing effects of gross public immorality added. A private landlord, so runs the argument, would be foolish to grant a lease at a fixed and uniform rent for 999 years ; but a State can prudently do so, because, having the legislative power in its hands, it can at any time adjust the inequality by means of "the constitutional right of a further levy in the form of taxation." It would be monstrous, tKe Commissioners say, to increase tke rent during the term ; the Staie must strictly observe the letter of its bond ; but at he same time it may so violate the spirit of the bond as to attain precisely the same result in an indirect fashion. Though the rent may not be increased, taxation may ; and thus the account will be squared in a fashion which is beyond the compass of an ordinary lessor. It may be said that we are overlooking the fact that the right of taxation is declared to be "unlimited except by the sense of justice of the people." But our reply is that to appeal to the right of taxation at all as a means of adjusting a shortage in rent is to make an appeal which is essentially immoral. Obviously to let good land for a long teim at a peppercorn rental would be a mad proceeding; but the bargain once made by Stfcte or private citizen must be faithfully observed both in the loiter and in the spirit ; and to hint that the State can afford to make the improvident bargain because the power of taxation will subsequently enable it to get even with the tenant, is to attempt to cure improvidence by immorality. There is only one mode in which "the sense of justice of the people" can set an honourable limit to such a proceeding, viz., by abolishing it altogether ; and their sense of business should lead them at once to the total abolition of a system which drives its official defenders to such a plea for its support.