The open arms imply their opposite, the cold shoulder. Suppose
a landowner whose property is on the edge of a growing town is not possessed of wealth in any way com- mensurate with the antiquity of his tenure. Suppose he sees in the forward-creeping houses the one compensation for his ruined privacy and over-taxed purse. His acres, that have been rather an obligation than an asset, may soon be worth a good deal per foot instead of next to nothing per acre. To accept the ee that this growing or approaching value
shall be arrested, shortly and sharply, is to submit to a tax heavier than any super-tax. His answer to the visitor is likely to be a demand for compensation at f.500, at £1,000 an acre or whatever it may be. The question that matters is ; what line of action to such an attitude will be taken by those who wield the town-planning powers, existing or about to exist. It seems less than just to fine the poorer landowner of to-day and, by relieving him of Death Duties, to endow the richer landowner of to-morrow.
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