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THE ESTATES GAZETTE
Febbttabt 4, 1899.
Personal.
Mr. W. Shenoer has commenced business as a house, estate and business agent, at No, 47, London-road, Brighton.
'Mr. 0. W. Coulsell has commenced business at Lake-road, Portsmouth, as an auctioneer and general business agent.
Messrs. Inman Sharp, Harrington and Roberts have removed their offices from No. 20 to No. 78, King William-street, City.
Messrs. H. Mills and A. E. Iveson, auctioneers, etc., Brighton, trading as Harcourt, Mills and Co., have dissolved partnership.
Mr. J. R. Thornton, auctioneer, Shore-ham, has removed from 59a, West-street, to commanding new offices situate at Bank-chambers, Carfax, in the same town.
The speaker in the discussion at the meeting of the Auctioneers’ Institute last week was Mr. Frank Perks, and not Mr. Sidney Perks, as stated in our report.
Mr. E. F. B. Fuller (Fuller and Fuller) returned last week from Egypt, having completed the surveys in Alexandria” Cairo, and elsewhere on behalf of the English syndicates.
Mr. G. J. Woodward, auctioneer and valuer, 19, Marmion-road, Southsea, has removed to more spacious and conveniently situated offices and salerooms at No. 9 (next to the Post■ Office), in the same thoroughfare.
A sad bereavement has befallen Mr. T. G. Wharton, the well-known auctioneer, of Iron-monger-lane, City, his son Reginald, aged 13, having met with a fatal accident when cycling at Bromley, on Tuesday.
Mr. Harry L. Ridge announces that he has succeeded to the business of the late Mr. Chas. Hearn, auctioneer and public-house broker, with whom he was for many years associated. He will retain the office at No. 11, Duke-street, London-bridge, S.E.
Mr. Eiioart, ox Radnor-chambers, Folkestone, has recently taken into partnership, Mr. E. Ernest Meacher, who served his articles under Mr. Eiioart, and who is a P.A.S.I. by exam. The style of the firm will, for the present, continue to be Eiioart and Co.
Mr. John Pearse, whose establishment in business as an auctioneer, etc., at No. 15, Princess-square, Plymouth, we notified last week, served his articles with Mr. John B. Body, of that town, and for some 20 years acted for that gentleman in the various branches of his business.
Among those present at the lecture delivered on Monday by Professor R. Warrington, F.R.S., to the members of the Bedfordshire Chamber of Agriculture, on the “ Rothamstead Agricultural Station,” were Mr. J. R. Eve, F.S.I. (Bedford), Mr. J. Cumberland (Luton), and Mr. H. Trust-ram Eve (Bedford), hon. sec.
Mr. Ernest Hall has been appointed by the Secretary of State for War to the post of estate agent for H. M. War Department in the southern district. This post was held by him jointly with his late partner (Mr. 0. Bovill Smith) for ten years, since whose death it has been conferred upon Mr. Hall.
Mr. Arthur Vernon, F.S.I., High Wycombe, was the plaintiff yesterday in the Chancery Division in the case of “Vernon v. Reynolds,” and Mr. Justice Romer granted him an injunction restraining the defendant from obstructing his right of way by trees at Olifton-street, Chesham.
_Mr. Arthur R. Kell, who was for upwards ox ¿0 years a partner in the well-known firm of G. J. and A. R. Kell, of Barnsley, Yorks, lias commenced business on his own account as a land, mineral, house and estate agent, surveyor and valuer, at Crown-chambers, 9, Re-gent-street, Pall Mall, S.W. During his long residence in Barnsley Mr. Kell enjoyed the esteem of a very large circle of friends, and was for some time secretary to the Barnsley Agricultural and Horticultural Society.
Mr. J. Arthur Wallington, F.S.I., Basingstoke, gave evidence before the Light Railway Commissioners at Penzance, on Monday, upon an enquiry into the application by the Penzance, Newlyn and West Cornwall Light Railway Company, and the St. Just, Land’s End and Great Western Junction Light Railway, for the construction of a light railway in West Cornwall. The enquiry is probably one of the most important yet held under the Act. The Commissioners held an enquiry last August into two similar schemes, but rejected both, as they did not consider them sufficiently matured. Mr. Wallington, who was the only light railway expert called on Tuesday, has surveyed the line and reported upon the scheme on behalf of Mr. C. D. N. Le Grice and Mr. R. F. Bolit'ho (the two largest landowners), and was able to arrange with the engineer of the scheme, such a deviation of the line as to minimise the damage and reduce opposition to the proposal. Mr. Wallington also reported for the West Penrith Rural District Council. The promoters of the present scheme are, we understand, the Railways Development Company.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Appears on Page 175.
gentlemen who think they have already argued the proposal out of the field. Mr. Long indeed went so far at Newcastle as to say that “ If he were not speaking in public he would probably be prepared heartily to endorse it.” There is a good deal to be said on both sides of this matter, and it would be as foolish to dogmatise, at present, in one direction as in the other. Mr. Long tells us he is still hopeful of dealing with the amendment of the Agricultural Holdings Act “ before he leaves office.” That is discreetly vague, and may mean that it is to be left to the last minute, with the necessarily attendant possibility that it may have to be abandoned in the end. It will be a serious mistake if the present Government does not deal with the question. Occupants of the Front Bench have talked about it continually, and the Cabinet is really pledged in honour to do something towards settling a troublesome business.
Now that the first elections under the Irish Local Government Act are over, the working of the new and modified system of Home Rule will be watched with eager curiosity on both sides of St. George’s Channel. Those elections were not so favourable to the conservative element in Ireland as the more sanguine had hoped; nor were they so disastrous to them as had been predicted. Irish legislation is usually so extremely uninteresting, not to say forbidding to the English mind, which has no first-hand knowledge of the conditions of Irish life, that we fancy very few people in this island have a clear and intelligent idea of what the Act has done. The ignorance is, indeed, pardonable, since the measure fills 117 large pages and is necessarily exceedingly intricate and detailed. It sets up an entirely new machinery of local government, the greatest change being in the rural districts where County Councils, to a great extent on the English model, save that there are no Aldermen, are made the governing authority in place of the old arrangement of Grand Juries and Presentment Sessions.
To these new bodies very extensive powers have been entrusted, and it remains to be seen how they will be administered. Much depends upon the extent to which the country gentlemen are able to preserve their influence, and to the amount of the pecuniary burden which the County Councils place upon their constituents. Safeguards were provided in the Act against wanton and partisan taxation, and we are unwilling to suppose that anything of the kind would be attempted. If the new authorities are carefully administered in a business-like way, they ought, in a few years time, to work very greatly to the advantage of the rural districts in Ireland—we say nothing of the towns which are subject to different conditions. Good government is the basis of all prosperity, and the more logical form of Irish local administration, together with the increased power confided to the councils, ought to have a very considerable influence upon the fortunes of the country. Indeed, it is not too much to say that the County Councils have it in their power to make or mar the country. All that is wanted for success is honest, public-spirited, and nonpartisan administration.
Messbs. Charles Sparrow and Son, auctioneers, etc., are now occupying their new offices at North Finchley, which have been handsomely fitted! up by Messrs. F. Sage and Co., of Gray’s-inn-road. Mr. Sparrow, jun., has charge of the surveying branch of the business.
matter home to many owners of small property, while the action of the Peabody and Guinness Trustees has shown how exceedingly important the matter is. The Peabody Trust has served notices to leave on such of the tenants of their model dwellings as have obtained a magistrate’s certificate of exemption, unless they have their children vaccinated. This they were virtually corhpelled to do, since one of their standing regulations requires that the children inhabiting their blocks shall have been vaccinated. The Guinness Trust, although not bound by any such statute, is, if we may judge from the utterances of Lord Rowton, the chairman, about to take similar action, and no doubt many private owners of industrial property will follow the lead. Already one of them has announced, as we read in the “ Times,” that he has a “ conscientious objection ”to “ paying the amount which would be necessary for disinfecting and cleansing cottages in the event of an outbreak of smallpox.” And, whatever our views upon vaccination may be, no one can wonder that house-owners should thus seek to protect themselves.
We are not in the least surprised at the result of the One Tree Hill litigation. The trespassers have been decided against and cast in costs. The case merely reproduces the essential features of many similar endeavours to prove that the public have rights in private property. Ignorant or ill-informed people are always ready to believe that capitalists and land-owners are doing somebody out of their “rights.” In this particular case the most extravagant language was used, inflammatory speeches were made, fences were removed and the ground trespassed upon in the no doubt genuine but clearly absurd belief that there was a public right of way across the ground of the Honor Oak Golf Club. When the case came on a few days ago, before Mr. Justice Romer, it soon became clear that the defendants had not a leg to stand upon, and, as the judge said, the whole business “ showed how serious a thing it was for people to involve themselves in legal disputes, unless or until they were very sure of their ground.” They failed entirely to prove the existence of any public paths.
Although we do not altogether share Mr. Chamberlain’s optimism as to the probable smooth progress of the Parliamentary session which opens next Tuesday, it is agreeable to receive the new assurance, contained in his speech at Birmingham last Saturday, that one of the subjects the Government intends to take in hand this year is the facilitating of the acquisition of workmen’s dwellings. Unless his forecast of the session should be too optimistic— and there are several excessively contentious subjects on the horizon—there is really no reason why this useful measure should not get through. Compared with many other countries we are very little plagued by socialism in England ; and to make it easy for a workman to become the owner of the house in which he lives, would do more than anything else to make socialism a losing game. We do not, of course, wish to see this result, desirable as it is, obtained by any sacrifice of public money ; but the man who owns his own roof-tree is, almost of necessity, a law-abiding citizen, and very unlikely to listen to the noisy wooings of agitators.
That so considerable an authority as the Minister of Agriculture has just expressed himself as by no means satisfied that national granaries are impracticable, may perhaps give pause to those cock-sure
THE ESTATE MARKET.
The sales at the Tokenhouse-yard Mart during the past week have again been of an uninteresting character, and the supply short. Property is, however, selling well, and it is many years since the demand at this season was so keen as at the present time. The properties on offer during the week were only of the ordinary brick and mortar type, or small ground rents, the majority of which found purchasers, while there was also a good market for gas shares and policies, which together brought the total to £50,587, or over £17,000 increase on the corresponding week in last year, when £38,478 was recorded. We append the summary of the returns of sales as registered at the Estate Exchange for the past month, which show a decrease, this being due to the short supply of property in the market.
January, 1898. January, 1899.
At the Mart .............£293,176	... £175,137
Country and Suburban ... 133,084 ...	91,488
Private Contract Sales ...	21,300	...	97,250
£363,875	״£447,560
In tbe provinces a licensed bouse, the Stag and Pheasant at Leicester, was sold for £19,500. The chief transactions of the week have been the disposal by private treaty of the Earl of Lovelace’s Warwickshire Estates, and the interesting residential estate known as the Old Manor House, Hythe, Kent.
Otastflnal plaits.
The Cabinet scheme for the Local Government of London is now known in outline. It strikes us as an excellent scheme so far as it has been revealed. The City is to remain untouched ; but the rest of the Metropolitan area is to be divided into not more than thirty municipal boroughs, which are to enjoy all the attributes of the most dignified form of local Government, with the single exception of Aldermen ; and seeing how that institution has been abused by the dominant party upon the County Council the provision is, perhaps, a wise one, The new municipalities are to be compulsory and not permissive, which is also a good thing. To have left the Act to be adopted or ignored by the class of men who usually make themselves busiest in matters of local administration in London parishes would have been something of a disaster.
The great hope for the change, of course, is that it will put an end to the indifferentism in local politics which has hitherto been so terrible, because so passive, an obstacle to reform, and that it will give an opportunity for really able and public-spirited men to make themselves felt. We need not dwell upon the great importance of the change to all owners of house-property within the County Council’s area, The new legislation will give them an opportunity, if they are clever enough to seize it, of obtaining the representation to which their position entitles them. The reasonable and proper expenditure of the rates has so immediate an influence upon the letting value of house-property that they are quite as closely interested in local taxation as the tenants themselves. But we must warn them that supineness will meet with the usual retribution—the same retribution that has always waited upon the Moderates on the London County Council. Form and dignity are to be given to London government; it is for those who are most nearly concerned to see that they obtain their fair share of advantage from the new conditions.
We do not propose to discuss the rights and wrongs of vaccination ; bnt recent legislation on the subject has brought the