in an enterprise which binds him to a fixed rent-charge, which rent-charge must be paid whether matters grow

worse or not.

Though the Act clearly contemplates, and is framed throughout for, purchase, only throwing in leasing as a subsidiary element where purchase is proved to be impracticable, the labourer shews no disposition to rise to the occasion, no matter in how tempting a shape the proposition may be placed before him.

For the English peasant to become a proprietor under the Act means that he will for 50 years (that is, probably, the whole of his life), have to pay a greater annual sum, in order to make freehold the land he takes up, than if he were merely renting it; and, in addition, he has to find and pay down a sum representing one-fifth of the purchasemoney. His proprietary instincts are not sufficiently strong to induce him to pinch himself in order to benefit posterity. The capital that he is finding, as part payment of the purchase-money, would, if added to the money that he must necessarily find to stock the small holding he is taking up, enable him to take a much larger farm, if he rented the same, in the ordinary way under the present system, from a large landowner; and he knows that under the latter he will, practically, be better off, as he will get the greater part of his repairs done for him, and, should times go worse, will, probably, get further reductions in his rent.

Most estates in England have been laid out in somewhat larger farms than those ideal holdings advocated by Mr. JESSE COLLINGS and others; and, whatever may be said to the contrary, larger holdings have been in the past, and, theoretically, still are, the best and most successful for the economic production of the chief factors of agricultural

success.

To fit and equip these farms for small holdings must

necessarily entail a large capital expenditure, and, in addition, the original equipment of the larger holding has, in the first instance, to be purchased with the land and subsequently done away with. It is impossible to lose sight of the fact that in the formation of small holdings in England from existing farms there are, in addition to the value of the land, two equipments which have to be paid for-first, the equipment which exists and forms part of the farm when first acquired, and which has, practically, to be done away with; and, secondly, the equipment necessary in order to adapt the farm to the new purposes for which it is required.

It is calculated that to take up 20 acres of fairly good land from a farm already equipped, and fit and adapt it for the purposes of a small holding, would entail, in order to make it freehold, an annual rent-charge, for 50 years, of £33 18s. 5d. But, having regard to the price of agricultural produce, it seems very doubtful whether a small farmer could make a living for himself and his family from such a holding, considering that, in addition, he would have to find working capital, pay the tithes, rates, and taxes, and live for the first year with no income. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that few labourers will exchange their wages of 14s. or 15s. per week, regularly paid, with an allotment of land and a low-rented cottage, for the tremendous work and privation needful for them to become peasant proprietors under the Act. It is to be feared that few new ownerships will be created, and that the Act itself is only another instance of the abortive results of State intervention in these matters.

H. HERBERT SMITH, Fellow.

Tithe Commutation Rent-Charge.

VALUE FOR THE YEAR 1894, &c.

For the year 1894 the value of £100 commuted tithe rent-charge, according to the average price of wheat, barley, and oats for the last seven years, will be £74 3s 93d.

The following figures, taken from Mr. TAYLOR'S Tithe Rent-Charge Tables, published by Messrs. SHAW AND SONS, shew that there has been a fall in the value of tithe rentcharge annually since 1878:

The average annual value of £100 for the 58 years (1837 to 1894) is £99 6s. 74d.

The average price of an Imperial bushel of British wheat, barley, and oats, computed from the weekly averages

of Corn Returns for the seven years ending Christmas 1893, was, according to the London Gazette of 2nd January, 1894, as follows:

:

and the average price for the seven years ending on the Thursday next before Christmas Day 1835-upon which the commutation of tithes was based-was

The average price per bushel for the single year 1893

SECTION II.

COMMUNICATIONS REFERRING TO PAPERS IN THE "TRANSACTIONS," &c.

On Mr. Blackbourn's Paper on “The London Streets and Buildings Bill, 1894."

("Transactions," Vol. XXVI., pp. 155-175.)

A.

Let us hope that this Bill, if passed, with some desirable excisions and amendments, will prove itself as good a piece of workmanship as the Metropolitan Building Act of 1855, and stand the test of time as stoutly as that Act, which for nearly 40 years has worked well and with very little litigation, taking into consideration the intricate details which it involves. The tables for thicknesses of walls in that Act are drawn with consummate ability, and I am glad to observe that they are incorporated in the Bill with very little change, the principal deviation being a provision that no house shall have more than two storeys of 9-inch walls, a provision with which The Surveyors' Institution is not likely to disagree.

Before commenting on some of the sections of the Bill in their numerical order, it will be convenient here to suggest