859
THÉ ESTATES CAZETTÊ,
March 4, 1899.
him last Saturday. The deputation consisted of members of the House Duty Repeal Association, and, as Sir Reginald Hanson explained, the proposals which it had to urge were rather calculated to increase than to diminish the revenue. The suggestion was simplicity itself, although it seemed to come as an entirely new light to Sir Michael Beach. At present, when a clerk or caretaker sleeps on business premises, they become liable to the full Inhabited House Duty. It was therefore suggested that such buildings should be rated horizontally instead of vertically— that is to say that the higher duty should be charged only on the inhabited floors, and that the lower duty only should be imposed upon the floors used simply as offices or warehouses. That seems a perfectly feasible idea.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, evidently thought that he was being asked to reduce the revenue, and was prompt to say that such a thing could not be thought of this year. Yet he undertook to consider what we may call the horizontal idea of taxation, and to see if anything could be done. It should be explained that the reason why the revenue would be increased by the new arrangement is that it is expected that a very large number of business firms would have clerks and caretakers to sleep on their premises if the concession were granted, and the houses, instead of paying the lower tax for the whole of the building, would pay a mixed tax, partly high and partly low. Sir Michael Beach admitted that there are anomalies connected with the Inhabited House Duty, and, not unnaturally, fell back upon the existence of the Local Taxation Commission as a reason for not doing anything for the present. It is to be supposed that the Commission will give some attention to a matter which is of serious interest to every house-holder and houseowner.
Prudential Assurance Company, Limited. —The 50th annual report of the directors for the year 1898 states that in the Ordinary branch the number of policies issued during the year was 64,708, assuring the sum of £6,420,580 and producing a new annual premium income of £355,113; the premiums received during the year were £2,967,501, being an increase of £193,237 over the year 1897; the claims amounted to £975,012; the number of policies in force at the end of the year was 534,133. Ill the Industrial branch, the premiums received during the year were £4,960,756, being an increase of £167,165; claims amounted to £1,891,039 ; the number of free policies granted was 66,379, making the number in force 604,564; the total number of policies in force at the end of the year was 12,949,679 (average duration exceeding eight and a half years). The assets of the company, in both branches, as shown in the balance sheet, are £33,599,703, being an increase of £3,161,371 over those of 1897. Public attention having been for some time past directed to questions of thrift and provision for old age, the directors have had under consideration how they can further assist those policyholders who from age and diminished earnings find some difficulty in maintaining the payment of premiums on their policies, and they have therefore made provision for all policyholders in the industrial branch who have been assured for 25 years to be free from the payment of further premiums as they attain the age of 75. This alteration takes effect at once, and has of course necessitated a considerable addition to the reserves. The results bf the valuation show, in the Ordinary branch, a surplus Of £912,234, including the sum of £244,380 brought forward from last year, and in the Industrial branch, £814,882. The amount brought forward from last year is £397,356, including the sum of £50,000 contributed to the jubilee fund. Out of this surplus the board	have added
£150,000 to the reserve fund, which now stands at £750,000. The -total surplus of the two branches is thus £1,727,116. The amounts which the directors propose to carry forward are £303,680 in the ordinary branch, and £331,831 in the industrial branch, together £635,514, leaving £941,602 for distribution among the participating policyholders and shareholders, in accordance with the regulations df the company under its special Act of Parliament.
THE ESTATE MARKET.
Although the returns of sales at the London Auction Mart are not of the same phenomenal character as recorded last week, excellent business was done during the week just ended, the actual returns, £187,665, showing the considerable advance of £45,840 on those of the corresponding week in last year. On the whole the market for property generally has displayed an upward tendency. There was a demand for gas stock, while reversion and life policies were also well sought after, but apart from these, the main portion of the returns was compiled, from the sale of London and suburban properties of a moderate character, and ground rents, all of which realised good prices. Perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the market, however, is to be found in the extraordinary increase of business recorded for February, as the following figures will show. The amount of sales recorded at the Mart during the month of February, 1898, was £412,308, the amount for the same month of the current year is £724,294, or an increase of £811,986, which brings the total sales at the 28th ultimo, to £899,481, or £193,947 in advance of last year.
©aasiomil ftotes.
Mr. Rider Haggard continues in “ Longmans’ Magazine ” his agreeable gossip about rural life, interspersed with acute remarks upon current topics affecting the landed interest. Regarding the supply of food-stuffs in war-time, for instance, he paints a gloomy picture of what might happen if, owing to the partial failure of the fleet to keep communications open, or the machinations of foreign speculators in grain, wheat ran up to a hundred shillings a quarter. “ Peace with dishonour,” he thinks, would be the only way out of it with millions of citizens “ wrath with hunger.” He is particularly incisive about the margarine business, and points out that it is hard on the man who wants to get butter that he should have to eat margarine, because the man who wTants margarine will not eat it unless it looks like butter. He was very unfavourably impressed by a visit which he paid to a large margarine factory on the Continent. The best that he can say of the processes he witnessed is that “ oils and greases evaporated from the mud of the Thames below London ” did not, contrary to rumour, form part of the materials used in the manufacture.
Mr. Haggard complains bitterly that he cannot get a remunerative price for his butter. He enters in his diary that the price ruling last May in Bungay market was eightpence or ninepence a pound, and he received a penny a pound more than that by reason of his butter being made from the cream of pedigree cattle with the help of a separator, and never being touched by hand. He explains the low price, of course, by the vast importations of Danish and other butters, which do not enjoy these advantages. Having himself visited many Breton dairies, and having seen the “ ancient and festering midden heaps ” before the doors, he thinks the butter from Brittany is dear at any price. So do we; but the probabilities are that we all eat a good deal of it unawares. No more unfair advantage can be imagined than this competition of insanitary foreign farm produce with the carefully looked-after products of English dairies.
Those who are interested in real property are so well accustomed to cold comfort that little surprise has been felt at the not very encouraging reply given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the deputation, which discussed the Inhabited House Duty with
make was that the Holywell-street improvement ought to be carried out as quickly as possible, and altogether irrespective of the new street from Holborn to the Strand. Sir Henry Fowler pointed out that traffic in the Strand becomes every day more congested, and that the space occupied by the southern side of Holywell-street is badly needed for the accommodation of foot passengers and vehicles. This not too reputable “ island ” is certainly an intolerable nuisance. It is not only an obstruction, but an eye-sore, and it is impossible not to sympathise with every effort to get it removed. Sir Henry did well, therefore, to call attention to the fact that this particular improvement has been talked about at Spring-gardens for the last ten years.
Mr. James Stuart and Mr. John Burns explained the position and intentions of the County Council with complete success. If the south side of Holywell-street were securtd and demolished before the Council obtained possession of the north side, the buildings upon the latter would be increased in value. It is therefore intended to acquire the northern portion of the street first. Then the improvement can be proceeded with in the certainty that no undue price will have to be paid for it. The Council has been well-advised by its valuer. It is clear that to open up the northern side of Holy well-street by the removal of the portion which backs upon the Strand, would certainly result in a considerable accession of value. A land value in Holywell-street, as it is at this moment, is very different from a land value in the Strand itself. These statements were emphasised by Mr. Burns, who pointed out what will, we trust, in time turn out to be the facf, that the new street from Holborn to the Strand is only the beginning of one of the most striking ameliorations which has ever been brought about in London. The Council desires, he said, to run a great arterial street from the Strand to Euston Station, and eventually to build a new bridge across the river to the east of Somerset House. Such a bridge is needed badly, and we trust the Council will remain in the same mind for the next ten years— the period suggested by Mr. Burns as necessary before these great conceptions can be carried out to the full.
When we get a Somerset House bridge we hope it may be found possible to do something towards embanking the river from Blackfriars to Westminster on the Surrey shore. Happily, the Thames is very wide between those two points, and the mean and sordid southern shore is not quite such an eyesore as it might otherwise be. But it is bad enough in all conscience, and a complete disgrace to the capital of the Empire. These, however, are counsels of perfection for some future day. In the meantime we must possess our souls in patience and feel thankful that we are on the eve of one of the most striking improvements that has been brought about in London since the Thames Embankment was made. Nor is our satisfaction diminished by the knowledge that, thanks to the prudent and business-like attitude of the County Council, it will cost a sum relatively unimportant. The acceptance of the sound principle of recoupment has been the salvation of the new street.
The Presidency oe the R.A.S.—The Earl of Coventry, president of the Royal Agricultural Society, has received a personal letter from H.R.H. the Prince of Wales consenting to accept the presidency of the society for the year 1900, “ in order to show the great interest which he takes in everything relating to agriculture.”
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A JOURNAL
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The Oldest Paper Published in the Landed Interests.
LONDON, MARCH 4, 1899.
THE GREAT IMPROVEMENT.
Now that the London Improvement Bill, which provides for the construction of the new street from the Strand to Holborn, has passed its second reading in the House of Commons, the scheme may be regarded as well on the way to fruition. The occasion was marked by an incident which the friends of the County Council seemed, oddly enough, not very well able to understand. Sir Henry Fowler moved that the Bill should be read a second time that day six months, in order to call attention to the delay in removing the Holywell-street “island”—that is, the southern side of that street, which narrows and obstructs the Strand between ihe two churches of St Clement Danes and St. Mary-le־Strand Owing to the forms of the House that was the only manner in which the question could be raised, and it obviously did not in the least imply that Sir Henry was inimical to the Bill. The point he had to