Round some towns, the estates of great landowners form a ring fence barring any growth of the town until, when trade is good and the town is expanding, extravagant prices can be obtained for the land of which they have the monopoly.  High ground rents are fixed when trade is inflated, jerry-builders then start erecting houses, borrowing sometimes from building societies the whole amount required to enable them to build, and the houses are either sold or let at very high rents.  The cottages are put up in the cheapest possible way consistent with the by-laws of the local authorities.  When a cycle of bad trade occurs the property falls in value, it goes out of repair, tenants have no interest whatever in keeping it decent, it falls into a disgusting condition, mortgagees foreclose.  In many cases the building societies that have lent money on the property to its full value, by arrangement between the secretary of the society and the speculative builder, have gone into liquidation, and the industrious people who have placed their money in the societies have lost their investments.  And last, there have even been disputes between the owner of the ground rent who wishes to re-enter and the local authority as to the payment of charges for making streets in the district which has fallen into decay.  This is no fancy picture.  Those who have had legal practice over a period of years in some of our large towns will confirm it from their own experience.

There is no valid reason why, when land is converted from agricultural land into building land in the neighbourhood of a large town without any effort on the part of the landowner, a definite portion of such land should not be set aside for allotments or open spaces without payment, on the same grounds that a person who is erecting buildings on the land is obliged to comply with building regulations to secure proper sanitation, although it might be more profitable to build without any regard whatever for the health of the prospective tenants.  Of course, it may not always be possible to set aside a portion of any given piece of land which is sold for building, but in that case the landowner should contribute an equivalent value out of the proceeds of the land which he sells towards providing the allotments or open spaces required elsewhere in the neighbourhood.  Such a provision would not be really burdensome, as no contribution either in land or money would be made except at the time when a largely increased revenue was to be derived from the land.  It is not to be forgotten that the large urban landlord usually pays no rates towards meeting the requirements of the town, and receives the full amount of the rent fixed practically for all time at a period of inflation, although the rates may have enormously increased to meet the cost of the things which the municipality has to provide for the needs of a large and industrious but often very poor population.