130 
Cottages  for  Rural  Lahourers. 
In  a letter  to  the  Land  Agents^  Record'^  of  October  8, 
1904,  page  551,  Sir  William  wrote  : — 
“ During  the  forty  years  that  I have  been  engaged  in  building  operations  as 
a landowner  I have  never  had  such  a plan  as  the  District  Council  demanded 
for  cottage  or  farmhouse  property,  and  very  few  of  the  local  builders  I have 
employed  could  have  made  one,  for  they  do  not  keep  drawing  clerks.  For 
more  important  buildings,  of  course,  I employ  an  architect  in  the  usual  way. 
It  is  bad  enough  to  have  to  wade  through  fifty  bye-laws  and  to  understand 
them  (almost  an  impossibility)  before  you  can  begin  to  build  a single  cottage  to 
let  at  3«.  or  4.«.  a week,  but  much  worse  if  you  have  to  comply  with  a fifty-first 
bye-law  in  such  a way  that  an  official  of  the  District  Council  could  trip  you 
if  he  had  a spite  against  you,  because  you  had  altered  the  position  of  a 
window  or  the  aspect  of  an  earth  closet  door.” 
Into  the  merits  of  this  particular  dispute,  however,  I do 
not  propose  to  enter.  It  may  still  be  regarded  as  to  some 
extent  suh  judice,  inasmuch  as  the  defendant  has  announced  his 
intention  of  carrying  the  matter  to  a higher  Court.  But  the 
case  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  problem  of  the  housing 
of  the  rural  ])opulation  ; and  whatever  may  he  its  ultimate 
issue  a large  section  of  the  public  are  likely  to  derive  benefit 
from  the  prominence  given  by  Sir  William  Grantham’s  action 
to  the  question  of  rural  building  bye-laws  and  their  admini.s- 
tration,  which  undoubtedly  needs  attention. 
Arising  out  of  this  case  a large  deputation,  composed  of 
rural  landowners  and  others  interested,  waited  upon  the  President 
of  the  Local  Government  Board  on  November  17,  1904,  for  the 
purpose  of  complaining  “ of  the  hardships,  difficulties,  and  (or) 
impossibilities  of  complying  with  the  Rural  District  Bye-Laws  ” 
in  relation  to  the  building  of  cottages.  The  action  and  2>owers 
of  the  Local  Government  Board  in  regard  to  this  question 
were  then  fully  explained  by  Mr.  Walter  Long,  from  whose 
sympathetic  rej)ly  to  the  speeches  made  it  may  be  assumed  that 
the  question  of  the  building  bye-laws  in  rural  districts,  as 
affected  by  recent  develo})inents,  will  not  escape  renewed 
consideration  by  the  Government  authorities.  Mr.  Long  was 
justified  in  taking  credit  for  the  issue  by  his  Department  in 
1901  of  the  “Model  Bye-laws  for  Rural  Districts,”  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made.  The  action  of  the  Board 
in  this  matter  is  indeed  similar  to  that  which  they  took  in 
i.ssuing  their  “Model  Regulations  relating  to  Dairies,  Gow.sheds, 
and  Milkshops,”  as  the  result  of  representations  made  by  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Society  and  other  bodies.’ 
If  bye-laws  be  made  too  stringent,  building  will  be 
discouraged,  and  the  assessment  value  for  rating  purposes 
' Journal  H.A.S.E.,  Vol.  58,  1897,  pp.  774-781,  and  Vol.  59,  1898,  pp.  xxiv-xxv. 
