HOW CAN CHEAP TRANSIT LOWER RENT?

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 14

HOW CAN CHEAP TRANSIT LOWER RENT?

TO THE EDITOH. Sir, — Mr. Samuel Brown's .letter in reply to my query is explanatory as far as it goes, but it still leaves a difficulty in' tho unskilled mind. Mr. Brown Bays thai' the exodus of population to Ihoso districts mado accessible by the scheme of cheap transport which he advocates would increase tho price of land furthor out but decrease it near town. But clearly this could only continue so lonjy as the population was stationary. As population- increased (as it is sure rapidly to do in Wellington) would not prices soon recoyer the old inflation, and as there is nothing in the process to secure an increase in wages, whore would the worker ba then? As a momber of the community ho would, too, bo out of pocket his share in the cost of tram or railway. It seems to me that the one man who stands to win every timo ia tho man who buys up land in front of this constant pressure of population. What I, and I am euro many other readers of your valuable paper, would like a man of Mr. Brown's ripe experience and judgment to explain is, What return does the speculator maku to tho community for tho immenso profits which go into his pockets? He does nothing to produce them. Could iiot a gentleman of Mr. Brown/i wide practical knowledge and evident sympathy with tho victim of high rents formulate », schemo to stop land speculation, or to lessen its profits? 1£ this were done it seems to mo that Iho question of transit would solvo itself. — I am, etc., AESOP. "Wellington, 18th July, 1907.

"Mr. Bronnan, whose gyroscope tram seems to be Iho nearest approach to * flying-machine yet- invented, is" says thb Star, "an Irishman by bnth. As a very young man be emigrated to Australia, and obtained a place in a department store at Melbourne. The propne tor received a large consignment of clocks from England, and found that they had been damaged in> transit. Young Brennan showed mechanical aptitude for the first time by setting them light. From clocks he advanced (by stages) to torpedoes, and had the supremo good luck to sell the Brennan torpedo to the British Government for £120,000- Vast sums of monoy were spent on its manufacture, and then, in the autumn of last year, the Government decided to close the Brennan torpedo factory at Gilliugham, from which it has been assumed that it* dajr in vast."