Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-22
TARIFF AIDS LAND
VALUE IN BRITAIN
10 to 20 Per Cent Duties on
Food Six Months Hence
Create Market.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
LONDON, October % ,(N.AN.A).-
English real estate. for years one of the
| NEST unproductive things in the coun-
try, is looking up as result of the
expressed policies of the new national
| government. There is even a spirit Of
cheerfulpess pervading the broad and
hitherto semi-bankrupt acres of the
| land.
The countryside is beginning to smile
and landowners are hoping there may
be another use for the soil Of England
farmers, whom many consider the
! worlds worst pesSimists, have ceased to
talk of imminent restitution.
The explanation IS simple. Six
months hence Great Britain will have
| protective tariff. There will be duties
| Of 10 to 20 per cent on imported food
stuffs. The shires have been slow to
grasp the imminence of the change, as
| the recent heavy business in the real
estate market shows. But as soon as
| the national government had obtained
its first vote of confidence, shrewd out
siders saw what was coming. Now in
the city Of London you are told conf
| IDENTIFY that wise investors are buying
land.
EIne uuauSlOnS burden.
The tariff will come none too soon
! for the old landed families. For most
of them their broad acres have been in
recent years a cause of loss rather than
gain, and their fine mansions a positive
burden
But even tariffs will not free them
from their main incubus, death duties.
These scale up to terrifying figures on
| rich mems fortunes. A man with a
gross income Of quarter million dol
lars a year, which means that his net
income Is about half that amount, must
sacrifice half his estate on death. The
great landholders, whose main income
is derived now from factories, banks,
mines, brewerieS and other kinds Of
busineSs-in fact, from anything rather
than land-sell land steadily to pay the
death duties. 1t has for so many years
been evidently the best thing to get
rid Of.
AS a result the notices Of land sales,
most of these including an historic or
at any rate an old house. fill real estate
journals. Often prices are surprisingly
low. For instance, in the county OF
Somerset a house dating from 1880
with acres of land, may be had for
S25, 900. 1t would have cost less had
the sale been announced a month ago.
Great Families Landless.
Many great families have sold land
until they have no more to sell. The
Duke of Montrose parted with Auchray,
5000 acres, an estate which comprised
the famous Trossachs, the glen which
leads to Loeb Lomond, three years ago.
1t is now the property of the Scottish
Forestry Commission, which bought
we'll 1t was for death duties that the
duke sold it.
The Duke of Newcastle leaves his
historic house at Clumber, in Noting
hamshire, to caretakerS, and himself
lives in small house on the estate.
| The Duke of Westminster, who GER
tainly is one of the three richest men
/ in Britain-he owns the Mayfair dis
| trict in London-has offered the an
Gent family seat of Eaton, in Cheshire,
to the local county council to use as a
hospital or home for imbeciles.
The trustees of the young Duke OF
Northumberland, who is not yet of age,
have been trying to. sell land in North
cumberland to meet the duties payable
upon the death last year of his father.
Now they are holding their land. SIGN
! House, formerly belonging to the North
cumberland family, a I1ideous, rectangu-
! lar mansion 200 yards long. had been
! sold before the dukes death. A bat
talon of infantry could be quartered
in it. But the duke, who knew his
estate would be halved at his death. had
no use for it. He had at Alnwick, in
Northumberland, a house as large as a
small town, which somehow or other
had to be kept up.
The Duke of Norfolk. another very
young head Of an llustrious house. has
just sold the ancient city Of Arundel, in
Sussex, the soil of which was his in fee
simple. He keeps Arundel Castle for
himself. The Earl of Hardwood. King
Georges son-in-law, gave up the mas
-l,., &c 49, aI,1
he could not afford it. The same no.
bleman recently sold the famous Ben
venuto Cellini jewel. an heirloom in
his house. for $4,000.
Smaller Estates Wanted Now.
Higher values for agricultural lard
will check inevitably the tendency to
sell land to pay death duties. 1t will
no longer be the most worthless prop
erty to come into the possession CT the
heir But this will not check the sale
of old and cumbrouS houses which can
not be maintained on an income drained
every year of between a quarter and
half Of the total amount by income tax.
There will undoubtedly be an effort to
retain the land, but there will be no
effort to keep the houses. Seemingly
things can never recover to the extent
at which it will be worth while again
to maintain houses requiring smc II
armies of servants.
The sales busily proceeding always
include a house In the counties. with
in an hours motor or rail ride of Len
don, these are rather expensive. but the
amount of land that goes with them is
from 5 to 10 acres. That is about as
much as the new ariStocracy wants to
own. The house with 20 bed rooms is
almost unstable.
It is curious how the real estate mar
ket still counts upon the buyer who
wants an historic place. For example,
the Plantation, at Stock, in Essex, is
for sale, and prospective buyers are re-
minded that Cowper wrote enc of his
rare cheerful poems about Stock. Most
of the houses for sale in the country
have reasonable claim to age, but
they will not bring high prices.
To own a large house in England is
to challenge the tax collector. For the
land there IS hope, but cnly for the
landowner who will become practical
farmer himself, and even then he must
not suppose that he will ever become a
rich man.
fConvripht 1921. nv the North American