The Outlook 497 



Of these two developments the former has not yet been 

 generally adopted, whereas the latter is in full activity, and, 

 in combination with the heavier local taxation which is steadily 

 driving people away from London boroughs, is helping to 

 produce results of much interest and importance. 



The population, not only of London, but of great towns 

 in general, is undergoing a considerable redistribution. Land 

 at greater distances from urban centres, and hitherto devoted 

 only to agriculture or market gardens, is being utilised more 

 and more for building purposes ; the increasing values of land 

 within the radius of these outer suburbs improves the position 

 on urban markets of producers in rural centres whose lower 

 rents may more than compensate for their slightly heavier 

 cost of transport as compared with the suburban growers ; 

 the health of town workers taking to what are not merely 

 suburban but country homes should improve. Social and 

 domestic conditions generally are, to a certain extent, in a state 

 of transition; while the trunk railways are getting back 

 from their long-distance suburban traffic some though not 

 yet, perhaps, actually the whole of the revenue they have 

 lost on their short-distance traffic. 



On the other hand, results are being brought about in the 

 inner suburbs which are viewed with much uneasiness by the 

 local authorities. The removal from the inner suburbs of 

 considerable numbers of those who can afford to live further 

 away from their business means (i) that population in the 

 inner suburban circle is decreasing, or, alternatively, that a 

 better-class population is giving place to a poorer-class one ; 

 (2) that much of the house property there is either standing 

 empty or is fetching considerably lower rents ; and (3) that 

 the taxable capacity of the areas in question is declining, 

 although the need for raising more by local taxation is 

 to-day greater than ever. 



Where the local authorities who are experiencing all these 

 consequences of an interesting social change have themselves 

 helped to bring them about by setting up municipal tramways 

 to compete with the railways, thus, among other consequences, 

 driving the latter to resort to measures of self-defence, they 

 may find that attempts to change, if not to control, the 

 operation of economic forces have their risks and perils ; while 

 the position for the authorities concerned will be even worse 

 2 K. 



