Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/32

 241 ENGLISH HISTORY. [ran.

(Fifeshirc, E.), who was the principal supporter of the amend- ment from the front Opposition Bench, wished (1) larger com- pulsory powers of acquisition to be given to local authorities, which would make it possible to use the purchased land advantageously; (2) to reform local rating so as to make it impossible for an owner to withhold land from public use ; (3) to introduce the principle of betterment. These remedies, which, he declared, no one could say were "inconsistent with sound principles of political economy or the elementary rules of justice/ ' inferentially condemned all those who desired to pre- serve " lungs and open spaces " in our great towns as unworthy of the name of public benefactors. The defence of the inaction of the Government was undertaken by Mr. A. J. Balfour (Manchester, E.) and Mr. Goschen ; the former explaining that the defects of the existing system of rating were being inquired into by a royal commission. Overcrowding, he admitted, and the difficulty of getting land, were the chief obstacles in the way of practical legislation, but a former Conservative Government had in 1890 passed the Housing of the Working Classes Act, and he asked why, in such cases as had been cited, this act had not been applied. If, however, it should be proved necessary to grant larger compulsory powers for the -acquisition of land for huilding purposes, the matter would have to be considered — and, as he hoped, dispassionately. Mr. Goschen ascribed the overcrowding in towns to the fact that more people wished to live in certain spots than there was room to accommodate, and not to the results of the law or of any rating system. He feared that it was almost beyond human power to solve this tremendous problem, and he warned the House lest by increasing the burdens upon land they should put difficulties in the way of the erection of workmen's dwellings on the outskirts of great towns. If any further measures could be taken to prevent overcrowding, the Government would be glad to adopt them. The taxation of unoccupied land, which had been recommended, was not an easy matter to accomplish, but he should not object to its taxation on just terms. To compel proprietors to sell such land in all circumstances would be undesirable, for unoccupied land often supplied much-needed breathing spaces in the metropolis and elsewhere. One of the difficulties in the way of those who desired to tax ground-rents was the impossibility in many cases of distinguishing between and separating the interests of the landlord and the tenant, and, in any case, special contracts would always baffle every attempt to fix the actual incidence of taxation. He trusted that the royal commission might make recommendations which would render possible some reform.

The division which followed showed the difficulties to which the Government would have been exposed had they attempted legislation on this extremely thorny question. The Liberal Unionists could scarcely be expected to think with the J^on-