HARD TIMES IN THE ISLE OF MAN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2714, 8 March 1916, Page 9

HARD TIMES IN THE ISLE OF MAN

HUNDREDS RUINED BY LACK OF TOUKiSTS fl'roin fciio London "Daily News.") _ Hit; preservation of small nationalities as essential to European culture in contrast to the German brand was pointedly at its commencement, and is still, in luct, the basis of the war, and so at iiiusent, amid the crash ol' othci principles, no excuse is needed for adding to tlm daily record of the,so times » Inotiuuc o;i the position of the Manx ueoplc. Their troubles are as real, if not as acute, as those of the Belgian people or the Serbs, and they present one curious feature in that whilo they seem remediablo no one on th island or socio remediable no one on the island or or at least willing to effect the remedy. I'lie case, to make it personal aSonce, principally uiL'ccts -Mrs. A. B. A Bank Holiday Disaster. On August Bank Holiday, 1814, Mrs. -•v. B. was carrying ou a successful business as a boardinghouse-kooper on the famous Loch Vroraenadc in Douglas. She bad over eighty guests ill her house, and the season promised to bo a record. By the Wednesday of that week her house was empty, and ever since then sho has sat alone in one or other of her forty rooms knitting or sewing or twiddling her thumbs and wondering if things coukl be worse if the heavens should reajly fall. All tho boats _which formerly 'brouglit grist to her mill in tho form of visitors are now, except two, on Admiralty servico (one, tho ltamsey, is at the bottom of the sea), and all the time she has not made a penny of income, whilo week by week her debts have grown, till now she is face to face with a bill for rent and rates amounting to £200. Her landlord (pressed perhaps by a mortgagee) demands his quota of £150, and no corporation was over known to ' take a charitablo view of tho rates question. A crisis in her affairs has silently approached, and is now fairly developed. Here tho general statement which is made by the Douglas authorities may be interpolated that twothirds of tho entire population is directly or indirectly dependent on ihe visiting industry. * ('!'e onlv course open to the sufferer arc that she should allow events to ■ take their course, and sit quietly in her empty house till tho broker's men come in and empty it of her furniture, which has been purchased through years out of the protits of liard-workcd seasons, or that she should do as her sister, Miss 0. D., has done. A Strangs Flitting. This ladv, who lived alone in lie: bouse, disappeared. Not even her nexidoor neighbours know when or to what place she disappeared. Sho contrived to leave in her house only tho window curtains and a chair or two near tho windows, which gave some semblancf. of occupancy, while bit by bit, in crates and boxes, during the night or m '/tie early morning, beds, chairs, chcstorfields, linen, carpets, everything that was movable was spirited out of i.ho house and out of the island. Secretly, Douglas is rather proud of the fugitive's achievements, but other consulorations come into the matter. In tho first place, the island and tho Manx people are the poorer by one decent womnn, who had worked honestly and profitably in tho community for forty years. In tho second place, her landlord, who probably can ill afford it, has lost his rent, is liable for some £50 foi tho rates of the liouse, and has a valuable property on his hands, without anj caretaker. His position is no less serious, in many cases, than that if his tenants. Considerate Landlords, The great majority of his fraternity, I am glad to learn, realising that their rents are not based on the value ol their houses as housed, but aro dividends from capital invested in the visiting industry,' liavo remitted as much as two-thirds. Others demand their full amount. So far, however, as tho tenants are concerned, even the reduced rent represents to many an unprocurable amount. Tiio demand is likely, indeed, to bo as nn-

productive as the proverbial one for tl"o brook.'; of a Miolandmnn, and the calculation prize of distraint on his kilt is a poor one to a landlord who realises that the only guarantee ho lias fur future payments is to leavo the productive powor of his tenants as unimpaired as possible for seasons after the war It is in 'his interest to prevent «n exodus irom the island, and also, as 1 will try to show, there is oven more at stako on that matter. A Great Exodus, Meanwhile it is estimated over 3ioo ot the people of Douglas, whii-h has a population of about 21,000, have already lot t, and when in a mouth's time notice's are given it is likely—in fact, almost inevitable—that the exodus will be even greater. Turee other factors to be considered in appraising the condition of the island and before criticising any remedies that have been attempted and beforo in, stancing others which have been euo-. gested, are: ° llie present position of the agricul. tural population of the island. The position, present and future, of the Corporation of Douglas in respect ol rating and rovonue. The financial position of the island and its relation to tho Imperial Government. In respect to the first, even the farmers admit that they have never had a better year than the one just past. Tho presence of the groat alien enemy camps at Knoclcaloo and Doughs, with their population of something like 25,000 per. sons, has partly contributed to this, and the fact is that tho deposits in tho banks of tho island have never stood at a higher amount, an amount, indeed, so high that. I was warned against at tracting to it the attention of Mr, M'Konna. Incidentally, it should bo mentioned that tlie tradespeople have only to a very minor extent, if at all, shared in this prosperity, and many of tho shopkeepers, ■if not all, should bo bracketed as sufferers with tho boardinghouso keepers, being seasonal cater-, crs. The majority, I am assured, aro living, not on tho profits, but on tho 'actual sale prices they obtain for prewar stock. ' The Budget of Douglas. Their position, witli that of the boardinghouso keepers, is tho crucial point in the matter of tho rates and revenue of Douglas. How that stands can best bo realised from these tables:— £ Rates collected in 1913 44.295 1914 40;41-1 >> . .1915 15,390 In the three principal municipal undertakings the figures aro: —; J ramways, 1913 28 633 „ 1914 21j552 To end of season, 191-5 3,194 Villa Marina, 1913 7120 „ 1914 4.588 To end of season, 1915 139 i Douglas Head, 1913 1,199 \„ „ 1914 648 To end of season, 1915 98 These figures show at onco that tho cessation of tile earning power of tlie capital invested in tho visiting industry is a most serious matter for the present, hut tliey also show how important is tho conservation of the potential earning power for the future, and lead to the same conclusion as was arrived at in tho first case we quoted, that tho native population must be prevented from leaving tho island. Already property in Douglas of a ratable value of £20,000 stands unoccupied, and unless something effective is done this bad state of affairs is bound to become worse. Finally, tho financial position of tho island, and its curious relations with tlie Imperial Government, play an important part in its destinies.