COTTAGE ACCOMMODATION. 281 



are not getting high enough wages from their 

 employers, and land is held tightly by the 

 present owners. In such districts the pro- 

 posed Housing Commissioners should do 

 excellent work, and if it is found that cottages 

 could not be built at a rent low enough to 

 meet the income of the agricultural labourer, 

 I fail to see why farmers and landowners, who 

 directly or indirectly benefit by the low 

 wages paid to labourers, should not contribute 

 specially towards the rates. This would not 

 be introducing any new principle in the finances 

 of Local Government. Already landowners 

 and farmers have been rate-aided by the re- 

 mission of half the rates on agricultural land, 

 and it seems hardly fair to put an extra tax 

 upon the village shopkeeper, the blacksmith, 

 the publican, and the doctor, because labourers 

 not employed by them cannot pay a rent 

 hiirh enouffh to enable them to live in a decent 

 cottage. 



There are, I suggest, two ways of getting 

 over the difficulty of covering the cost of 

 building. One would be a grant from the 

 national exchequer towards any reasonable 

 building scheme presented by a Rural District 

 Council to the Local Government Board, and 



