22 MARCH 1890, Page 3

The Government on Tuesday agreed that the Betterment Clause (Clause

28) in the Bill for the improvement of the Strand should be referred to a Select Committee of nine, five to be appointed by the House and four by the Committee of Selection. Mr. Ritchie, speaking on their behalf, did not repudiate the principle of taxing betterments, but they were not prepared to approve it until the whole subject had been threshed out before a Select Committee. That is the sensible plan, but all the Select Committees in the world cannot alter the fact that street improvements benefit other persons than the neighbouring landlords—if they did not, they would never be done—and to tax landlords exclusively for them is there- fore unjust.