RURAL HOUSING.
[To THE EDITOR Or TEE "SPECTATOR."] Srn,—It is satisfactory to learn that the President of the Local Government Board is bringing some pressure to bear upon local authorities in the matter of helping forward rural housing, for, unless my experience is singular, it is certainly needed. I belong to that class, far more numerous, I venture to think, than the President seems to imagine, who " try to do a little themselves." A. few years ago I managed, with some difficulty, to buy a row of miserable tumble-down hovels—one had tumbled down—unfit to put a dog in, and, as I had reason to know afterwards, infested with vermin. I served notices on the tenants as soon us I was able, but before I could get them out I was bailed before the magis- trates as the owner of property unfit for human habitation. The charge was perfectly true, only one could not help wondering why this condition of the property had not been discovered a dozen years before. A friend of mine suggested that the former owners were not worth powder and shot. It may • perhaps be interesting to add that the purchase and rebuilding of these cottages, which amounted to more than £1,300, are valued by the Inland Revenue for increment pur- poses at 020. In another village in which I am interested
some of the eottagers are badly off for drinking water, and I asked the County Council whether they would undertake to maintain a well if I built one upon a piece of my own land and conveyed it as a gift to the village. The Council evidently bad bigger things to attend to, and simply told me to consult the Parish Council. This council does not concern itself about the water supply, but has been busy lately in passing a resolution to adopt the Libraries Act with the intention of building a public library. A penny rate produces £8 a year.
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