23 JUNE 1923, Page 3

The machinery by which landowners were required to supply particulars

of every transaction when they sold or let land remained, however, like a fly in amber—an interesting but expensive curiosity. The particulars were mostly useless as values continually fluctuated. Moreover, a great deal of departmental work was entailed by the classifications. Lawyers—greatly to their credit, as they stood to be losers by the abolition of regulations which put much work into their hands—have long demanded the abolition of what was obsolete and un- necessary. The land-taxers, of course, are wringing their hands as the last morsel of ground crumbles under their feet, but the vast majority of sensible people are delighted that transactions in the transfer of land should be helped by a further simplification.

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