The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-16 00:00:00

CROWN LANDS.

It is satisfactory in these days to notice items of
public revenue which substantially maintain their
amount (remarks The Times). The surplus income
paid into the Exchequer from the produce to Her
Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues azain
in the financial year 1877-78, reached its highest
amount—namely, £410,000 ; from which, however,
must, as usual, be deducted the sum, about £23,000,
paid out of money annually voted by Parliament for
the salaries and expenses of the Office of Woods, &c.,
and the Office of Land Revenue. The land revenue
is derived from property. comprising about 70,000
acres of land let for agricultural purposes ; about
600 houses let at rack rents ; about 4,700
houses built. by Crown lessees upon land let
on building leases ; besides collieries and other
works. An addition was made to this property in the
year 1877-8, by purchases to the extent of £268,000,
paid for out of the cash capital in hand, arising from
sales, in former years, of estates not desirable proper-
ties for the Crown to retain, and, on the other hand,
various sales of property were made in the year to the
amount of nearly £34,000. The chief purchase was
by the investment of £255,255, in acquiring from the
corporation of London freehold ground-rents amount-
ing to £9,817 a year, charged upon thirty-three houses
on Holborn-viaduct, with the reversion to the property
at the termination of the leases ixt 1952. The largest
sale was of the Selsea Estate, in the county of Sussex,
for £12,720, a sale which had been in contemplation as
desirable for some years.
The general term "Crown Lands" comprises three
classes of property. There is, first, the land revenue,-
and this in the year 1877-78 appears to have produced
£456,489, from which must be deducted £39,817
expenditure, including cost of Collection, repairs,
rates, &c. Next come Windsor parks and woods,
with property at Ascot, Bagshot, &c. There are
more than 14,000 acres of land maintained as part
of the domain attached to Windsor Castle. The pro:
perty, like the Royal parks in London, is largely used
by the public for purposes of recreation, and it cannot
be considered as a matter solely of profit and loss.
The receipts in the year amounted to £5,978, and the
expenditure to £26,969. This last sum includes an
item of £5,168, on account, towards a new house at
Bagshot-park, and the following note is appended :
"The occupation of the house was given by Her
Majesty to his Royal Highness the Duke of Con-
naught. The house and offices were worn out and un-
suited for modern occupation. The cost of placing
them in repair, so far as they admitted of being re-
paired, was estimated at £13,000. His Royal High-
ness proposed to build a new house and offices, pro-
vided the Land Revenue would contribute £lB,OOO
towards the cost, which was estimated at a much
larger sum. As by this arrangement the Land Re-
venue will be saved a considerable sum in repairs
annuallY'for some years to come, the proposal of his
Royal Highness was agreed to."
Lastly, there are the Royal forests and woodlands,
which produced in the year £28,353, but the expendi-
ture amounted to £.1.0,303. The totals are £40,820
receipts, and 87,0 A expenditure, leaving a surplus of
£1.03,731, which is made up to £llO,OOO for the Ex-
chequer by culling forward a smaller balance than at
the beginning of the year.