The London County Council is going far in the democratic
direction. Its proposal that ground-rents should be taxed like all other real property in cities is, at all events, arguable, and, if regard is paid to leases, reasonable ; but on Tuesday it passed an extraordinary motion. It proposes to obtain from Parliament power to take " open spaces "—Holland House Park, for instance—on terms more favourable than those settled under "the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts," and the favourable terms were explained by the Vice-Chairman to mean less than full compensation. It was, he said, unrea- sonable if the Council took fifty acres out of a hundred, and the value of the remainder therefore rose, that the owner should receive the full value of the expropriated land. Mr. Harrison's Consol property, if he possesses any, is yearly increased in value by the purchases of the Commissioners of the National Debt. Would he authorise the Treasury to seize his Consols at their value minus that increment, or does he agree with Mr. Sidney Webb that he would not object to see the whole value of freeholds transferred by taxation to the Municipality ?
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