San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-13
London Man Finds 1t Out
When He Accidentally
Buys An Estate in Lewis
AT Five Cents An Acre.
BY w. l.. MANSON.
special Gable TO the san Antonio Ligf
and the Chicago Daily News
CanyrfSh4


Landlordism and the old nobility in
Scotland have fallen on evil days.
Even those landlords who have titles
or handles to their names count for
very little. As for their land, it is
costing them more TO keep than it
brings them in revenue, and they can
get rid of it only by selling it for the
equivalent of old songs.
Take, for example, Lord Lever
holme, the soap king. As a manufac-
turer of soap he is an enormous sue
cess. But in his desire to be a great
highland chief he bought the Lewis,
and there proved himself a failure.
The other day an estate of his in the
Lewis was put up for sale in London.
1t included $4,000 acres and it went
for $500, about $500. The price
works out about ) cents an acre.
The London man to whom the es-
tate was knocked down was not bid
ding seriously. He simply obliged the
salesman by making starting bid of
f500. But not another bid came and
before this accommodating bidder
knew what had happened down came
the hammer and he found himself
owner of $4,000 acres away up at the
Butt of Lewis-at cents an acre.
He is probably thoroughly puzzled
when he tries to think what to do
with his purchase.
Still He Can Be a Laird.
For his case is like this: He has a
score of crofting townships in which
the people are always on the poverty
line; he has some excellent grouse
L. s,%, 60, ftch-
ing, small dwelling house for himself
about twenty miles from Stormway,
houses for gamekeepers and other SER
wants, stables for horses and kennels
for dogs. He has. in fact, everything
necessary to qualify him as a full
Pledged highland laird, entitled to
wear the kilt and to have a piper play
outside while he dimes. But his rental,
assuming that he gets it all. is only
f163S, whereas the burdens" on
the estate, in the form of local and
imperial taxes, amount to f1242. So
he has only a margin of 1886 (assum-
ing he gets all his rents) to maintain
the high rank to which he attained
when he made that thoughtless bid in
a London salesroom. Such a margin
will not 60 far toward paying travel
ing expenses from and to London,
maintaining a retinue of servants,
paying for necessary Improvements
and administering the whole concern.
At the years end he will find him
self out of pocket.
Still he is a highland laird, and he
can talk in the metropolis about his
estates and his shootings, his fishings,
his piper and his tartan. As there are
more Leverholme estates in Lewis for
sale, other Londoners may get SINH
lar bargains, and may also become
highland lairds-at 5 cents an acre.
But what a fall is this from the
old days, when highland chiefs valued
their land so highly that they would
not sell it at all Or, if they did sell,
they obtained good prices, and sold
only in big sections to other men who
settled down to act as local chiefs in
their stead, and who were quite able
to live comfortably on their estates
and to play the part of good fairy
more or less-to their tenants. Now
a soap king from England pays a big
price for an island, plays with it for
a few years, gets tired OF it because
the people will not industrialize them
selves as he suggests, and then throws
1t in sections on the London market,
where it sells at 8 cents an acre.
Escaping the Death Duties.
Then there is the duke of Suther-
land. He has been trying TO get rid Of
as much as possible of his hundreds of
thousands of acres away up in the
north of Scotland. He has sold some,
but the market for land is bad and he
still has more acres than any other
man in Great Britain. To be sure,
many of his acres are not worth
much. They consist of moors and
MOSES, which bring in little or no rev.
enue and are not worth much even as
snootlngs. But they are worth more
than 5 cents an acre, and they are not
being put up for sale without reserve.
The duke is trying another plan that
has been tried by about a dozen big
Scottish landowners. He is forming
limited liability company for the man.
agement and administration of his es-
tsates. This company will have a cap
ital Of 100000 in fl shares. The
duke will be the chairman and will
hold practically all the shares, but
there will be other shareholders, d.
rectors and a secretary, all according
to law.
This plan has several good points
from the point of view of the land
lord. 1t converts the whole estate
into business concern, and the duke,
as an individual. ceases 20 be land
lord. The margin between the total
rental and the amount required for ad-
ministration is no longer private
profit. 1t has become dividends. What
is more important. limited liability
companies are taxed on a lower scale
than are private individuals, and so
much money will be saved for the duke
and lost to the chancellor of the ex-
chequer.
One very heavy tax-death duties
will be escaped altogether. When a
private individual dies his next of kin
has to pay death duties on all he
leaves. A limited liability company
does not die. So the chancellor of
the excheQuer can never get death du-
ties from the Sutherland Estates Pri-
vate company" as he did from the
present duke when he succeeded to
those hundreds of thousands of acres
The whole thing is a device for sim
plifying administration, saving money
and evading taxation. But the fact
that the old nobility has found it ne
cessary TO resort to nlans of this kind
shows how evil are the DAYS on which
they have fallen. Truly their glory has
departed.
HONOR FOR AMHERST