AUSTRALIA TO-DAY. NEWS AND NOTES. LAND AND BUILDING BOOM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 150, 22 December 1911, Page 2

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY. NEWS AND NOTES. LAND AND BUILDING BOOM.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, 16th December. There can be no question of the rapid strides the City of Sydney is making. Year by year it goes on increasing by leaps and bounds. It is already one of the great maritime cities not only of the British Empire, but of the world 1 , and it is fast becoming one of the great cities hi: the world in point of population. At present all Australia is experiencing an unparalleled wave of prosperity, and Sydney is riding on the crest of 'it. There is. a great land and building boom. Land in the heart of the city brings almost fabulous prices, and never before has suburban land brought , such high prices' as to-day. .Every week there are sales in the suburbs, and people are given free trips to the locality, wherever it may happen to bew Some of the people who go are prospective buyers; many of them simply take advantage of the opportunity to have a free trip on a Saturday afternoon.. But it apparently pays the auctioneers to do it. Looking at the building side of the programme, it is found that by the time the year has ended permits for building operations will have ■ been granted in. over 6000 instances, or for nearly a thousand more buildings than were erected in 1910. In the last five years no fewer than 26,000 buildings have been erected in Sydney and suburbs. "Including the necessary adjuncts, such as wharfage, tramways, water, and sewerage, etc., it represents an expenditure in the five years of something like £24,000,000. So rapidly is the population growing that it is estimated that the number of suburban buildings erected this year will total nearly 6000, which means accommodation for some 30,000 additional people. And still there is a great shortage of houses, and still rents are going up. The remodelling of the city by the City Council is to some extent responsiblefor this state of things, for in the process hundreds of houses have been demolished, and aforetime tenants forced to find houses elsewhere. ProbaHy 750 houses have been pulled down in the city during the present year. But large public and business premises have been, and are being, erected also. This year will be a record one for the signing of contracts for the erection of tall buildings. The skyscraper, as it is known in America, is not yet known here, but it is coming by degrees. Some of the buildings will reach a height of 160 ft from the footpath, and will be ten or twelve stories high. Government, City Council, and Harbour Trust are all concerned in large^ buildings. So heavy has the building programme been that, despite the making of State bricks for Government buildings, the brick-masters have been unable to supply the demand, and orders have had to wait in some cases for two or three months before they could be filled. The output of bricks is millions in excess of what it was twelve months ago. The timber imported, from outside Australia this year is estimated approximately at £1,170,000, as against £820,000 last year. At the same time, there was a great demand for local hardwoods, and the export of , Australian timbers rose rapidly. Taken, all round, there was a rise of 15 per cent, in- wages on the year. Bricklayers were offered as much as 14s a day, masons 13s and 14s, carpenters 12s, labourers anything up to its? and plasterers were so scarce that in some instances > they received 15s a day. The trouble Was to get the men. This country can absorb thousands of workers, both skilled and unskilled. THE NEW TAXATION. In epite of all the prosperity, , in spite of the expanding revenue, the people are to bo taxed further,. On top of the Federal land tax now comes an income tax for the people of New South Wales, and on top of that something like £400,000 is to be raised by means of -stamp ' duties. As the income tax ie expected to furnish £700.000,. it will be seen that the I amount of additional taxation totals £1,100,000. The amount of the exemption under the income tax is £300. There ie, in addition, au exemption of £50 for each child, under oixteen — which, at 6d lin the £, 'represents _ 25s a year. A rather interesting point suggests itself in connection with this income tax — one that does not appear to have been noticed so far. ' IJnder the Federal land tax husband and wife are regarded as one for taxation 'purposes, but no such provision is made in the State Income Tax Bill. Supposing, therefore, that a man has a wife and three children, and that his v/ife has an income of her own totalling £300, it would seem that a total exemption of £750 could be claimed — £300 each for husband and wife, and £ISO for the three children. In the Legislative Council the new proposals have been severely criticised as being not only unnecessary but "revolutionary. "t" t Sir Joseph Carruthers went so far" as' to urge the Council to throw the Bill out 3 even if it meant the extinction of the Ccuncil as a legislative body. But, by 16 votes to 13,' the advice wasn't "taken. _ Meantime, the Federal Government is busy with its tariff proposals, which are going to put further taxes on the people of the Commonwealth. SYDNEY'S LORD MAYOR. Sir Allen Taylor "has once again been elected Lord Mayor of Sydney. He stated some time back that he would not be a candidate for the position, but later on he altered his mind. He had started some big things going in the way of city improvement, and he wa6 anxious to see them to a conclusion. In the meantime a couple of other aldermen had announced themselves as candidates, including' Alderman G. T. Clarke, who has had a long and honourable municipal .career, and %yas at one time Mayor of (South Dunedin. He was for j some time prominent in the municipal life of North Sydney, where he thrice refused the, "crown." Alderman Meagher, who proposed Alderman Clarke for the Lord Mayoralty, said that if Sir Allen Taylor loft office there would surely be eomeonfe .in tho council equal to the office. He did not believe in monopolies. But Sir Allen Taylor has his little conceits, and he did not seem prepared to admit that ho could be spared without disadvantage to the city; for afLer his election he remarked, "without appearing to be egotistical," .that if .a vote of the citizens had been taken he believed he would have been elected just the sdme. Possibly. He deserves credit for what, he has done, and he has been knighted for it — though some say the knighthood was conferred upon him more in recognition of his connection with the Dreadnought fund than for Ilia city improvement schemes. Sir Allen Taylor is no scholar, he is no speaker — culture is a thing that does not seem to be required of a Lord 'Mayor of Sydney— but he has made a success in a business way, and has done some good .for the city because of his business methods. All the same, 1 probably he wt-hVkf not have been re-elected to the Lord Mayoralty if the promisee that were made *o support Alderman Clarke had been kept. "I have nothing

to say of many of the aldermen who have exercised their franchise in their own way," esvid Alderman Clarke after the election, "and with regard Lo those who have not kept their promises to me thff leaet said the better. Had the promises made to me been ' kept, I might have been the Lord Mayor for 1912." AMERICAN FARMERS FOR VICTORIA. An important move has just been decided .on by the Victorian Government, with a view to securing a number of American irrigationisls for that State. It is in Victoria that most attention has been, paid to irrigation in the past, though New South Wales is at present vigorously moving in this regard, as witness the great Barren Jack irrigation scheme. .Arrangements have just been made by Victoria with the Union Steam Ship Company, by which that company's new steamer Tahiti will leave San Francisco under contract on 3rd April, 1912, for Melbourne, specially low fares being charged for any American irrigators who wish to visit Victoria with the idea of settling there. Those who wish to make the round trip will be accommodated on the return journey also at reduced prices. If this trip proves successful, arrangements will be made to provide for a series of similar excursions, and possibly for a direct shipping "service! between San Francisco and Melbourne. Attempts have been made before this to secure expert irrigationists for Victoria from the United States, but as the voyage has had to be made via Sydney; or via New Zealand and Sydney, the. Victorian Government complains that people who have started out with the original intention of going to the southern State have succumbed in many cases to the charms of other places called at on the way. It is stated that one whole pcU'ty which left America for Victoria by an indirect Toute disappeared entirely on the way.' The result of the new arrangement will be watched with interest.