TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 641 
its rent-producing capacity and cali only for demolition long before it has suffered 
much deterioration as a building, In such circumstances the ideal kind of house 
would be one constructed to last, say, thirty years at the outside. But this, of 
course, is the last thing that Municipalities in their present mood would think of 
doing, and they generally make it impossible by their own building regulations. 
Besides this, there is the consequence of the ‘ economic trespass ;’ that dwelling- 
houses for the poor generally take up the space of buildings of a more remunerative 
character, and so keep down the rateable value of the area, while increasing its 
expenses. 
(2) It enters into direct competition with many of its own ratepayers, com- 
peting not only with the comparatively small class of builders, but with the great 
class of owners of house property. Apart from the equity of this, which is too 
large a question to enter on here, the results may be very serious. Free com- 
petition of producers to serve the public is, of course, a good thing, and in 
nothing, perhaps, is it more desirable than in the purveying of houses, where the 
length of time required for erection tends to some extent towards monopoly. But 
competition is good because, and to the extent that, it keeps down prices by 
increasing supply, and the action of a Municipality working with money borrowed 
at a gilt-edged security rate is very likely to have the opposite effect; it may 
result in a positive diminution of the total supply of houses, and so a rise of rent, 
by reason of the discouragement given to private builders through the appearance 
of a rival with whom they cannot compete on equal terms. The monopoly which 
Municipalities secure for their other industries prevents such a danger; but it must 
be emphasised that a Municipality supplying a few hundred houses, where the well- 
being of the citizens as a whole depends on private enterprise continuing to supply 
some hundreds of thousands, occupies an entirely different position -from a 
Municipality providing ald the water, gas, electricity, and tramway service which 
the citizens may demand. 
(3) By pledging the public credit for a new debt, and adding a new activity 
and responsibility to already overworked members of the Municipality, it pro 
tanto prevents the expansion of municipal activity in other directions. Public 
functions, however admirable, must be limited by the public purse, and probably 
will be limited, long before that purse is exhausted, by the ratepayers’ revolt against 
increased rates. 
This must not be regarded as special pleading against furthur increase of 
municipal duties and expenses. Anyone who studies the growing complexity of 
city life and its increasing requirements of inspection, control, and administration 
generally, to say nothing of its possible expansion in other industrial and com- 
mercial directions, must be impressed with the necessity and magnitude of the 
tasks that lie before public bodies in the future, and must recoguise the inexpe- 
diency of taking on any new burden without the most serious consideration. He 
will at least ask that the cost be counted and definite limits laid down. And 
these limits, in the present case, are not easily laid down. To mention only one 
thing: it would be exceedingly difficult, on grounds of equity, to justify the giving 
of an advantage to one class and refusing it to another, and, when that was done, to 
establish courts and criteria which should define and limit the class favoured. 
But unless such definitions and limitations were attempted, the Municipality 
would be embarked on an expenditure of which no one could see the end. 
These are considerations against municipal building and owning derived from 
the general principles which should, in my opinion, regulate all municipal expansion. 
They are not, of course, decisive against it. But they suggest that very definite and 
weighty reasons must be put forward on the other side. 
t will be admitted that the interests of public health, public morals, and 
industrial efficiency are definite and weighty reasons, and I should give the most 
sincere consideration to the argument of those who ask for municipal housing 
on such grounds. There are some respects in which the provision of houses seems 
to come under the natural work of a Municipality almost as much as do the pro- 
visions of gas and water. The house, as the condition of the home, stands at the 
1904, TT 
