THE GLUT OF MONEY, AND INVESTMENTS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—Your thoughtful and suggestive article bearing on this subject has been read by many with peculiar interest. It strikes a timely key-note, and may lead to inquiry and important results. We in England are well-nigh as ill-conditioned in respect to our investments as in the form of our popular amuse- ments. There is a lack of initiation and a tendency to look outside for attractions, and when some bold adventurer takes the lead, to rush in like a flock of sheep. Here we have, as alleged, some £200,000,000 virtually lying idle, on the one hand ; and, on the other, home industries languishing for the requisite capital to make them profitable. Fruit-culture on the shores of the Mediterranean and tea-growing in Georgia may be all very well, but they are far a-field, and involve the risk of the waste- ful expenditure and " corrupt practices " which ruined so many of the foreign loans originated for public works.
Your question, " Has Science said its last word about build- ing materials P" is receiving in some quarters a practical solution. In May a paper was read before the Society of Arts upon the utilisation of blast-furnace slag in this direction. It is estimated that in one year no less than 8,000,000 tons of this waste product are produced, absorbing about a quarter of a million sterling annually in its disposal, and covering acres of land that might be valuable for agricultural or building purposes. Within the past few years, two considerable experi- ments have been carried to a fairly successful issue. At Middlesbrough, a company is making from slag, under Wood- ward's patent, paving blocks, which, on account of their cheap- ness, and suitability for crossings, channelling, and the like, are finding a ready market. (At the Cleveland Slag Works, cheap building materials of every description are being manu- factured on a large scale under the superintendence of Mr. Charles Wood, the author of the paper referred to. After a somewhat prolonged and expensive process of perfecting the patent appliances, the most remarkable results have been at- tained. Slag cement, which has stood the severest tests in foundations, retaining-walls, buildings, piers, &c., can be sup- plied at 6s. per ton, whilst concrete composed of this cement and slag shingle costs only 5s. 6d. per cubic yard. A cheap and effective mortar for ordinary building purposes is made at the slag works, and also artificial stone, in the form of chimney- pieces, window-sills, wall-coping, as well as for paving foot- paths, stables, &c. Slag-sand for manure, and wool for packing, are amongst Mr. Wood's manufactures. The chief product, both in respect to the quantity of raw material consumed and pro- viding an economical and efficient article in constant demand, is the concrete or slag brick for ordinary building purposes. There are now two machines— Bodmer and Wood's patents— employed, making about 130,000 bricks weekly, and consuming over 250 tons of slag sand, prepared by a simple contrivance constructed near the blast furnace, and thus absorbing for one article nearly 14,000 tons of slag per annum. The total cost of the bricks does not exceed 10s. 6d. per thousand, and they find a profitable market, particularly in London, where several millions have been sold to leading builders this year. Here is a new industry, for which there is scope and need in every iron and steel-producing district in the country, and only requiring the help of the over-loaded capitalist for extensive development.
In connection with this question, can nothing be done on a large scale to provide more commodious, better situated, and pleasantly-conditioned dwellings for the working and other classes in our manufacturing towns ? During this year, in the principal centres in the North, the empty houses have been gradually getting occupied, and in most of them there is a residuum of hovels unfit for human habitation. Within " the boundaries," or adjacent to them, there is an abund- ance of land, which, in the inflated times, sold readily at 10s. to 20s. per yard, and could now be obtained in tracts at one-half or one-third of these prices. The overcrowding, high rents, and miserable houses which on the average pre- vail in our great and growing manufacturing towns suggest a wide field for the safe and beneficent investment of capital. Hitherto, with few exceptions, this work has been done by individuals without system or adequate capital; and the building societies, restricted, as for the most part they are, simply to advancing money, do not meet the case. What is wanted—and will yet be done, with permanent benefit to all concerned—is to purchase land on the wholesale (not retail) principle, lay it out properly, and either erect suitable houses, or sell the lots at moderate prices, with rigid regulations as to the description of buildings. Something in this direction has been successfully done in several parts of England, and one experi- ment in Scotland deserves to be specially mentioned, for its
completeness as an illustration. A number of -years ago a Company in Edinburgh, chiefly working-men, purchased several small estates, and have erected on them superior dwellings (to the value of over £400,000), nearly all of which are owned and
occupied by workmen ; the average cost to the purchasers has been considerably less than it would have been as the result of ordinary individual speculative building, while the buildings and their surroundings are greatly improved, and the capital invested has yielded an annual return of from 8 to 10 per cent. In nearly every manufacturing district throughout England—in most iron-making towns notoriously—a great want exists ; individual enterprise and philanthropy have done something to meet it; but the wide field lies ready, and it would be at once a laudable and remunerative work to help in providing adequate house ac- commodation for the people. Then some portion of the land should be set aside for gardening purposes; fruit and veget- able culture can be made to yield 50 per cent. in England, and yet little is done to foster it! I am aware of several cases where land which had been let at from two to four pounds per acre brought readily from ten to fifteen pounds, when set aside for gardens; and the demand for allotments grows in the manufacturing districts.
There are many other points, such as the facilitating inter- communication and cheap carriage by means of tramways, the purchase and development of valuable undertakings commenced with insufficient capital or caught in the net of depression ; but I have already trespassed too far on your space.—I am, Sir, &C., AN INVESTOR.
Previous page
