A GREAT PROBLEM.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12403, 17 January 1905, Page 4

A GREAT PROBLEM.

One of the most painfulf and pressing problems that confronts the social .reformer in the great cities .of the Home Land is tine question of housing the poor. In London in particular thai difficulties of the enterprise are intensified to a great degree, and tome of* the most ardent reformers have become; almost hopeless <jf doing anything. Will it be believed that in the commercial capital of the world1, thai wealthiest city perhaps that ever was, the following conditions obtain, aooord'mg to a writer in the London "Daily News": Long ago some ■of London's poor gave up hope of inhabiting a complete house, however small, and took to tenements'. Long ago some of them gave up tenements1, and took to single rooms. Long ago some of them gave up even .this scant privacy, and allowed adult lodgers to sleep in the same room with married people and little children. Long ago some of them gave up single rooms, and became contenb with haCf a room, dividing the space by a sheet of sacking, with a family on both, sides. But it will probably be news to many that some of our people have begun to let their very beds. Houses and tenements and one-roomed homes have been divided' and subdivided tiiil now it has com© to pass that the very beds ar© let off at so much rent.Among some families in Spitalfields the beds are rented on the eight-hour principle, having three different sets of, fcLe»epers every' twenty-four hours. -In-: these conditions nearly 900,000 people, exist; iii. London. .:. Referring to this awful condition of things, Mr. 6. Gale Thomas, in ihci "Sunday Strand," declares that this condition of affairs does not iso much exist because Hihere;'is not enough land for the people, as because of the onerous conditions imposed, and tha tremendous prices required by the landowners. London belongs to a comparatively few families which are reaping untold wealth from their holdings. It has been estimated that three contiguous properties —'the Eyre, Portland, and Port-man,., .^states— produce an annual income of £1,200,000. Upon the failing in of the Portiran lease in 1888 the owner is said to have received for premiums upon the renewal of over seveaiitieen hundred leases the sum of £1,250,000. The rates of London have increased during the past thirty years from £4,000,000 to £10,000,000—150 per •cent., but no part of this has been borne by the owners, though the value of their properties has increased in the same proportion. Recently in Hampstead land realised £9600 an acre, the agricultural value of which would not exceed £50 an acre, the balance of £9550 reppesssiting the unearned increment. In the city rents are at extraordinary figures. An outfitter in the Strand pays a. rent of £800 a year, while a bootmaker in Cheapside paysi £1200 a year for a ground floor shop and basement alone. In the neighbourhood of the Bank of England -rents reach as hTgh as £75 per square fool; pea- annum. The 75,000 acres within the London County Council area would, if used as

agricul'turail land, yield no more than £100,000 a year rent. Yet at present they yield nearly £20,000,000, owing to the needs of a vast population for standing and sleeping room. It is estimated, that for iovery soul added to the popu'ia- - tion of London £100 is thereby added to , the property of the ground landlord, while for every public improvement effected by the community a rich harvest •^a att onoo reaped by the landlord, who contributes nothing towards it. From these facts, Mr. Thomas ira driven to the conclusion that "the land' is the source of wealth, and it may well£ be <tihat the remedy will have to be sought in thte> direction indicated long ago by Adam Smith m the 'Wealth of Nations,' where he liaid down the principle that wherever in tha nature of things there exists a natural monopoly that monopoly ought to be in the hands of the State.". Whether or no such drastic remedy will have to be sought, it is plain that British, politicians have at the very doors of the House of Parliament tremendous probfjems demanding consideration, towards the solution of which .were better lif they devoted more of their attention, rather than to the advocaey^of :&>mfe of the questionable and fcghly' k^bjftfeSble measuresl oven* which p^itae^^are at present wi-angling. ..-..,;