SWELLING REVENUE FROM ROYAL LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 26 (Supplement)

SWELLING REVENUE FROM ROYAL LAND

DEVELOPMENT OF ESTATES The first house on the Royal estate which is being developed by the Commissioners of Crown Lands near Swinley, in Windsor Great Park, was recently completed, and it will be the beginning of a little woodland city inspired by the Commissioners in pursuance of their policy of developing as much as possible of the Royal lands in their charge on residential lines, a policy that has already had results calling for notice. Though not the first piece of building development by the Commission-ers—house-building was commenced at Esher before the war and is now proceeding at Eltham and Hainnult — the 1.200-acres tract in the Great Park is the biggest assigned by the Commissioners to building, and if the enterprise now commenced is successful, not less from an aesthetic than from an economic point of view, another 2,800 acres m the same region will be similarly developed. The utmost care is being taken of the amenities. No house or garden must occupy less than an acre, and no trees must be destroyed, or at least if some have to be felled to make a clearing others must be planted in compensation. As in due course there will be a little community living in the Park, two golf courses are being prepared by the Commissioners, and these will be ready in the summer. Revenue Increase House and shop property developments have increased the Commissioners’ revenue since the war by half a million pounds annually, and the yield of the Crown lands has almost doubled. In 1920 property yielded £692,627: lest year it yielded £1,134,255. In the years immediately following the war the total net revenue of the Crown lands averaged £650,000; last * r ear it was £1,010,000. Nor is it likely to remain stationary, for there are still 8,000 acres near London more or less suitable for building.

The new Regent Street has increased the revenue enormously. In 1913 the rents totalled £44,070: last year they were £315,229, and even this figure does not represent the maximum benefit from the rebuilding. In illustration of this resounding increment, it may be said that the Criterion group, formerly let at £1.760, brings in on the new lease £8,155; the Plaza Theatre block has advanced from £5.525 to £16,120; and a block in Regent Street, Kingsley Street and Fouberts Place has gone up from £735 7s 6d to £8,380; though it should be added that on some sites a little extra land is represented. Though the matter is only of academic interest, one cannot resist considering the profitableness of the xving’s lands in relation to the bargain between State and Sovereign represented by the surrender, over 200 years ago, of the Sovereign’s life interest in his lands in return for a fixed “salary.” The King’s Income In 1757, when a Commission inquired into the Crown lands question, the yield from the Royal estates in 49 counties was the meagre sum of £10,563 12s Id, the yield from all the

Middlesex lands, including London, being £4,709. Yet George 111. received a Civil List of £723,000, and though there were other considerations to be taken into account, he could have no reason to regret the surrender of his lands. William IV., with a Civil List of £510,000 and no charges upon it, could feel the same, and Queen Victoria’s £385,000 kept on the heels of the amount she would have had by retaining the revenue from her lands. Edward VII. was in the same position, but such success has come to the Commissioners in recent years that the yield has soared far above the present Civil List of £470,000, and will certainly go higher-