THE HARVEST OF A SINGLE LANDLORD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8189, 2 August 1912, Page 4

THE HARVEST OF A SINGLE LANDLORD.

WHAT A DL'KK CAN DO. STi:ANGLING INDUSTRY BY .MONOPOLY.

Mr XI. li. Outhwaito, writing | in the London "uaily New., and ! Leader/’ teiU a story of what j ha.; happened in a hundred years ; in Itngtind. The Kamo cause will | niaiai the same tiling happen 1 during the nex t twenty hvo years | in New Zealand. The _ people | must strangle' monopoly in land or the land monopoly will strng- j gle the people on tho land. [

Here is his story: During a centm-v Sheffield has grown {rum a, town of 3U,0b0 inhabitants to In; a mighty ■ manufacturing centre of 151,OutS people, with a wurid-conquer-lllg industry based on the fashioning of steel to individual ncctls and national tolly. But those who sowed have not garnered tho harvest; that has gone to tho ground landlords, and in particular to his Grace the Duke of {Norfolk. I owe it to Mr Charles Paul, author of “{forgotten {'acts in tho History of Sheffield”- and “’An Old English Village” (St. Catherine’s Press, price Cdj that I was able to understand tho evolution of this tragedy. We left the centre of the city, and in a few minutes were in Attercliffo, the dark realm of tho clan of Tubal Cain. Black clouds of smoko hung low, poisoning tho atmosphere, obliterating the sky; tho begrimed streets, the toil"stained workers, the squalor and the overpowering evidences of gigantic, remorseless activities wero suggestive of tho grim brutality of industrialism. A century ago this was At tor el life Common, a {dace of pleasant meadows on tho crystal Don, a. part of tho 63,0 acres of common land which in 1767 lay within a twelve-mile radius of the Sheffield Parish Church. The Inclosure Award dealing with Attercliffo Commons was made in 1820, in the childhood of men still living, and ‘‘the most noble Charles, Dnko of Norfolk, Lord of the Manor of Sheffield,” secured an area here of over 60 acres. Within the last 30 years the population of Attercliffe has grown from 6000 to 60,000, and large works are now massed on what was the common land. Mr Paul pointed out one crowded area of three acres, the silo of which went to the Duke of Norfolk when tho people were despoiled of Oaks Green. UNEARNED TOLL. Wo passed into Brightsido Division, another industrial territory under tribute to the Duke. A pleasing name is Salmon Pastures, recalling tho once verdant river banks. It lay within tho ancient demesne of tho Duke of Norfolk. Industry has covered it with bricks and mortar, and pays dearly for the privilege. The Duke has here, as elsewhere, iow-lyiug land unfit for building purposes. The manufacturers have difficulty in getting rid of ashes and refuse. Tiie Duke permits them to tip on to this land at a charge of 6d or more a load until they have made it fit to provide him with ground rents as building land. In 1906 there was a vacant spaoe here, slightly over an acre in extent—an unoonsidered trifle< it produced no income, and so it paid no rates. Then the Sheffield Education Committee purchased it, and had to pay tho price of progress—£223l and costs.

We pass one world-conquering firn after another. Here, for instance, are the works of Messrs Vickers, Sons, and Maxim, covering 100 acres and employing 6000 men. from this point hack to the Wicker in the city is about two miles, and in one continuous row stretch the works of mighty firms established on ducal land. On a hillside in the distance one saw the massed dwellings of the workers at Pittsmoor, who pay ground , rent ,to the present Duke for occupation of land that his ancestor secured under the Brightside award. We. pass the Rotherham railway that in the days of its construction paid tribute to the ducal estate. So in the manufacturing quarter of Sheffield one saw on all sides how progress has fructified in ground rents for his Grace tho Duke of Norfolk. And, thanks to Mr Paul’s investigations, I was able to trace the similar history of ducal property situated in more favoured residential areas. Under an Inclosure award in 1791 tho then Duke secured 1393 acres, and villadom now occupies tho site; under another 7L \ acres went to him for tho benefit of his descendant. EVIL OF LAND MONOPOLY.

Wo passed into tho Bailey street area of back-to-back houses, of which fchelficld lias 17,000, and inspected foul, evil-smelling habitations. Here Death reaps a full harvest at tho rate of 10 per thousand, comparable with the 8 per thousand amongst tho villas of Fulivood suburbs. From there wo went to tho Scotland street area, of which Councillor Bashforth remarked: “This area should bo swept away, but it cannot bo done under tho present system owing to tho cost, but under a land values tax it would clear itself, for tho site is of high value.” Wo passed out of these horrible areas down on to West Bar, a main thoroughfare which, with streets leading thereto, has been improved by the corporation at a cost of £63,926. Great hoardings along vacant frontages attest that tho corporation, as in tho case of its slum clearances, has not been able to dispose of land purchased, and that the ratepayers are bearing a heavy burden of loss. And right down on to theso frontages come the slum areas ivithin a stone's throw of the Town Hall. If rating hau been on the basis of land value the slums would have been swept away and these improvements would have brought such an increased revenue to tho Treasury that there would have been profit in place of loss. So whether it bo a matter of slum clearances or street widening, one sees the present rating system wrecking municipal endeavour. Wo passed on to the New street Improvement area lying near the Market Buildings. Here the corporation has taken the first stop towards a clearance. having purchased property at a price of £14iK987. The need was great, for wo wont at one point down a narrow alley way and struck a pest

:-:pot, a wbilf from which sent us hurrying back. Hero again the Duke ol Norfolk levied a heavy toll. This area lies m tho midst of tho busiest business tiiorougnia res of tho city, alongside the Great Central railway station. o land values tax would have swiftly swept it clean. Then wo came to the Market Buildings, and evidences of ourr.tl plunder again became the predominant feature of our investigation. The u uko of Norfolk owned the market site and buildings, and, as Lord of the Manor, had tno solo right to maintain a market in jSliciiioki. Tho corporation bought him out, and paid £sk6,tOJ mid L.jt"J2 in transfer expenses. Aiho outside, £100,006 would cover the value of tho buildings. A STUDY IN CONTRASTS. Then wo turned into the Park toriritory—so called because it was ones 1 Ituo park of tho Duke of Norfolk s manor house. Councillor Bashfortli pointed out a small corner shop. Mr Unwin, a drapor, iiad lieid it on si lease from tho Duko at £3 Is per annum. \V hen thO lease had still 6i years to run tho tenant approached tho Duke for a renewal, no had to surrender tiio uuoxpircd term, and for a forty years’ lease contract to pay £l5O a year and spoud £IOO6 on the property. Round tho corner in Duke street we saw tho Park Wesleyan Chapel- Tho site, in area about three-quarters of an acre, was hold on a 99 years’ lease expiring in 1893. at an annual ground rent ot £8 16s. In 1869 tho Duke of Norfolk advertised tho freehold of the site for public sale, but on representations from tho chapel trustees ho sold it to them privately for £2BOO. A small frontage was reserved for the Duko, and is now occupied by a butcher’s shop. The Duke has been more generous to his coreligionists at Arundel, for whom ho has erected a magnificent church out of tho wealth of Sheffield.

Then wo went tin the slope, still on ducal territory, into a miserable, congested area whore inhabited hovels are mixed up with others untcnanted and in ruins. We stopped at one tumbledown cottage to talk with a miner and his wife. The whole abode of two little cribs below and two above only provided the space of a small room. There was a hole through the outer wall, the rent is 4s Dd a week, and helps to maintain Arundel Castle. And just beyond this'crowded area, within ,a mile of the centre of the city, stretch the green pasture fields of his Graoo the Duke of Norfolk. These fields block the extension of the city in this direction, they ring round the congested Park area, preventing the spreading out of the people. Councillor Bashforth informed me that in Sheffield cottages are built on the average at the rate of 45 to the acre at a ground rent of £1 10s each, and so one may attribute to this land a minimum value of £ISOO an acre and to the area of. 63 acres a total value of about £IOO,OOO. This block is rated at £79, and as “agricultural” land will contribute £2O or so to the expenditure of the city and to the finance of education and poor relief, that is to say, about as much as five cottages letting at 6s a week. A land values tax would unlock this area. THE PROBLEM OF LAND TAXES. I then took a penny tram to Osgathorpe, and walked along Earl Marshal road, with pasture fields belonging to the Duke of Norfolk on eacii side, comprising an area of 61 acres. The Education Committee in 1910 bought an acre of this land for an extension of the Owler lane school. The price paid was £1512 10s and costa The 61 acres of surrounding “agricultural” land are assessed at £9O, and contribute a few pounds to the rates, during the last 3S years the Education Authority has spent £163,657 on bites for elementary schools. Of this sum £34,000 has been paid to the Duke for 20 acres. Eleven acres, which cost £22,000, were derelict and went unrated. The other nine acres, which cost £12,000, were assessed at from £1 10s to £2 per acre, and contributed about £5 to' the rates. Under a land values tax there would be r differ ent story to tell.

I called on Aid. Sir William Clegg, ex-Lord Mayor and leader of the Liberal Party, who expressed himself as strongly in favour of the rating of land values, so that landowners benefiting from municipal expenditure, like the Duke of Norfolk through the tramways, should pay their fair contribution. The forod of Sir William Clegg’s (argument is revealed in the Abstract of Accounts for the City under the head “Property and Permanent Works and Outlay of a Capital Nature." Total cost of outlay to March 25th, 1910, has amounted to £11,941,349. ■ This vast expenditure, over £26 per head of the population, has gone in the main to directly enhance land values.

This, then, is the lesson that Sheffield conveys so that he who runs may read. Within the space of less than a century, and in particular during its last quarter, meadow land and waste fields have been turned into crowded residential areas and factory sites. Industry has marched forward from victory to victory, but the spoils of conquest have been filched from the victors by those who own the city site, and in particular by one leviathan monopolist. The burden of civic endeavour and national obligation grievously penalises industry and cruelly taxes the struggling worker, whose wretched abode is made subject to it, whilst tho ducal tax-collector, with the Strand and the mines also under tribute to him, can hold 20,000 Sussex acres as an appanage to a castle on ivhioh_ he spent £750,000, and a territory in Scotland for the preservation of grouse. It is cstnimted that of the occupied area of Sheffield the Duke of Norfolk holds 4000 acres. Put tho average value so low as £ISOO per acre, and this gives a total land values of £6.000,000. In 1815 the rental of the Sheffield estates was £IB,OOO. Here wo see what a century of progress has done for the Duke of Norfolk.

It is not so much what monopoly takes from the citizens as what it absolutely withholds that makes reality fall so tragically short of possibility. In the City Engineer’s report the following passage occurs:

The area of the city, which is one of the largest in the United Kingdom, is 23,662 acres, and the proportion of land at present undeveloped exceptionally large. Of the total area of the city 50C0 acres may be taken as being densely populated, 2300 acres sparsely built upon,

11,500 acres as land available for further development, tho remainder being moorland, reservoirs, parks, recreation grounds, precipitous ground,

etc., unavailable for building. When wc exclude from tho 5000 acres tho business sites, the groat areas occupied by the engineering yards, the roadways, and other non-residential areas, the spectacle is presented of all but a few of 454,653 human beings jammed together, skimpt of light and air and garden space, whilst around them lies a great territory that tho monopolist withholds till his xirico be obtained. A land values tax would lift tho ban.