Page:The homes of the working classes and the promises of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.djvu/11

7 was supposed, would have to follow the County Court. The chambers are there, but at present there is no sign of tenants. Hitherto heavy failures have been the order of the day in connection with Corporation Street. The few shopkeepers who have ventured to open are crushed to the earth by enormous rentals; it is impossible for them to live, and already some have had to seek the friendly shelter of the County Court so considerately placed at their very doors. Amongst other conspicuous failures an arcade was erected over an underground restaurant. Not a shop in the arcade is let, and the keeper of the restaurant liquidated. Every effort has been made to make the street go, but all without effect. As an experiment one lot was put up without reserve for public competition. The price realized, however, was so miserably poor, that the committee have not repeated the experiment. Every day shows more clearly the mad folly of Mr. Chamberlain's scheme, and the shameless distortion of the Artizans' Dwelling Act to carry it out. Every day shows more clearly the folly of purchasing good sound properties which were paying high rents and ratals, for the purpose of making an unnecessary street. A few exorbitant ground rents have been made by the Corporation, but, as I have shown, with the result of ruining many honest tradesmen. Now let us compare the present financial aspect of the scheme with the rosy picture drawn by Mr. Chamberlain on its introduction to the town. The total expenditure up to the present time is, according to the last report, £1,503,667. The annual cost of the scheme is £70,823 (not £18,000). After deducting £32,004 received by the Corporation for rents from patched-up unsanitary dwellings and brothels inclusive, we find an annual deficiency of £38,858 (not £12,000 as estimated by the author of the scheme). Add to this enormous loss to tradespeople whose businesses have been injured by the progress of the new street and the removal of the classes which formerly supported the trade of the neighbourhood, and the very large decrease in ratal from voids in the neighbourhood of the area. To make up for which deficiency £20,000 per annum, the profits on the gas manufacture in the hands of the Corporation, is taken out of the pockets of the gas consumers. Thus an indirect rate to that amount is established and collected. Again, several streets which were formerly second-rate business thoroughfares in the immediate neighbourhood of the scheme have, since the opening of the new street, been greatly injured. Large numbers of shops are to be let. Landlords lose rent, and the Corporation rates. As a natural consequence properties have materially decreased in value. To sum up, the result has been what a few sensible business men predicted it would be, an utter falsification of Mr. Chamberlain's roseate figures, bankruptcy and ruin to many, the scattering of thousands of artizans and poor people, injury to