FAIR RENTS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19149, 4 November 1927, Page 8

FAIR RENTS.

ACT THAT IS UNFAIR. (raoit ora own coRBEsroxDEXT.) SYDNEY, October 27. The Fair Rents Act of New South Wales is both good and bad in parts. One of the tasks of the new Government will be to remove some of 'ts obvious Mote. The Act, which has been commented upon, by one of the Supreme Court Judges, lay's down the condition, for example, that saving for exceptional circumstance's, the rental of any property coming within the pufvrew of the statute must'not

exceed that operating in the case of that particular property on January Ist, 1915. That date was put in purely as a precaution when, owing to the war, matters wore in a state of flux. The absurdity of that arbitrary standard is revealed by the fact that a man might have two houses .next to each other, both, of equal capital and letting value in every regard; but because one happened to have been occupied by the owner in 1915, and the other was let to a tenant, the adjudication of the Court would give them a definitely different rental value. This is one of the provisions of the Act which the Government has promised to annul. It is only one of several glaring blots. A cherished belief is thai the Englishman's* home is his castle, impervious to any and every, assauft, and that his rights there at least are

inviolate. One, however, quickly finds out that it is pure fiction, like many other ancient beliefs, if he owns houses for letting purposes in New South Wales, and wants to get repossession of his premises if he is not satisfied with:his tenants.