24 OCTOBER 1947, Page 5

Some of the controls under which we have the pleasure

of living lead to absurdities past belief, but evidence given in Stratford Court last week goes a little beyond anything I have seen recorded yet. The Borough Accountant of Walthamstow, as recorded in The Times, said that if a man wanted to paint or repair his own house he must apply for a licence, as the cost of the materials to be used, plus the value of the man's own labour, might bring the total above the statutory limit of Do, and make a special licence necessary. Not even an amusing kind of madness, but one to which we are getting