HOMES AND WAGES 147 



brick or concrete can well be built for a less 

 cost than 140, and the labourers' rent of 

 1/6 or 2/- a week yields on this outlay a per- 

 centage so small that cottage building passes 

 out of the category of business into that of 

 somewhat expensive philanthropy. In view 

 of rates, taxes and repairs, 5 per cent, is the 

 minimum return which will ordinarily be 

 required from capital advanced for building 

 purposes : and this means a demand of some 

 three to four shillings a week a rent quite 

 beyond the present means of the agricultural 

 labourer. Here and there landowners erect 

 sporadic groups of sound and sanitary cottages, 

 but in almost every case the actu il return does 

 not exceed 2 per cent, or sinks to vanishing 

 point. It is therefore quite evident that the 

 solution of the problem cannot be left to the 

 generosity of a mere fraction of our landowners 

 who are rich enough to build cottages worth 

 five shillings a week and let them for two. 

 A novel proposal has been made by the Duke 

 of Marlborough and others, that as the land- 

 owner is thoroughly well acquainted with 

 rural needs and circumstances he should be 

 employed by the State and subsidized from the 

 national exchequer on the understanding that 

 he employs the money on cottage building. 

 It is difficult to imagine the adoption by any 



