POOR OLD ENGLAND,

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 10

POOR OLD ENGLAND,

HOW SHE IS SUFFERING. - THE “NOMINALLY WEALTHY.” The fashionable West End is suffering severely from the general depression in trade. The shopkeepers in that expensive locality complain that business had never been so bad, says a London correspondent. May, June, and July are usually the harvest months of the West End, because they include the ten to twelve weeks which make up the London social season, when everyone who is in society lives in a whirling state of excitement and enjoyment, attending race meetings, polo matches, dances and dinners, and spending money lavishly on clothes and luxuries. In addition there are usually in London at this time of the year scores of thousands of visitors on holiday from Continental countries, from America, from Canada, Australia. India, South Africa, and other parts of the British Empire, all of whom have provided themselves with money that they are prepared to part from. But this year the nominally wealthy classes in England have little to spend owing to heavy taxation and trade depression, and the number of visitors on holiday is far below normal. The fact that thirteen out of the 33 theatres ‘in the West End have closed their doors temporarily, is evidence of the extent to which the stage is suffering from the widespread effects of the depression in trade. Of course the summer months, with their many outdoor attractions in the form of sport and open-air amusements, have always been a lean time for the theatres; but it is many years since the West End theatres have been as poorly patronised as they have been this summer. The West End restaurants, which had a long run of unprecedented prosperity during the war, and for eighteen months after the armistice ended hostilities, are now suffering from the general depression. During the war it was impossible to get a seat at a table for lunch or dinner at any of the expensive restaurants and hotels in the West End unless yow arrived early; but now none of these establishments serve more than a quarter of the number of people for whom they have accommodation. And gone are the (lays when the fashionable residential hotels turned scores of guests away every day, because all their rooms were occupied. London, which was formerly a gay city, now goes to bed before midnight. The tube trains, which formerly ran up to 1 a.m., are being discontinued after midnight, as a careful count of the passengers in late trains showed the authorities , that there are no late revellers to cater for.

It. is announced that owing to the industrial situation, which means the general depression in trade, the King and Queen will not hold any Courts at Buckingham Palace this year.

EXTINGUISHING THE LANDED CLASS. Heavy taxation and the high costs of maintenance and repairs have rendered land-owning on a large scale unprofitable, and the landed gentry will soon be extinguished as a class. The Duke of Buccleuch; who has published his accounts of revenue and expenditure on a ( large agricultural estate in Scotland, of which he is the hereditary owner, received last year from the tenements on this estate £42,406 in rent; but after paying taxation, management, maintenance, and repairs, his net income from .tins estate was only £468. Eight years ago his net income from the estate was £22,327. Hundreds of owners of landed estates in England and Scotland have the same story to tell. Since the war ended many-of the landed families of the kingdom, who have been land owners for centuries, have been cutting up the family estates and selling them to their farming tenants and outsiders who cared to bid. These families have realised that it is much more profitable to invest money in war loan stock, returning d to 7 per cent, interest, than to keep it locked up in land which yields little or no return. AN INTOLERABLE BURDEN. The upkeep of the palatial mansions which for generations have been the country seats of the ancient families of England has become a burden which the owners cannot continue to carry tn these days of reduced incomes and increased taxation. Since the war ended scores of these great houses have been placed in the handS of the auctioneers for sale, but there is very little demand for them. Some have been bought and turned into hospitals, schools, and institutions of various kinds; others, for which there were no bids, have been stripped of their valuable contents and pulled down, the material being sold to builders. In some cases the owners have closed up the greater part of their mansions and live in a few rooms. Some days ago Stowe House, in Buckinghamshire, one of the largest and most magnificent of the stately historic homes of England, was put up for auction, and was purchased for £50,000. which is probably less than a tenth of its value ten years ago. > The new owner intends to make a gift of the mansion to the nation, hut it is doubtful if the Government will accept it, as it is situated far away from any large centre of populaand could not be put to any practical use. Stowe Ho.use, the hereditary home of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos—the last of whom died in 1889 —has a frontage of 916 feet and fooks out on acres of beautiful terraced gardens. The table in the State dining room of this mansion is 05 feet long—almost as long as a cricket pitch. The last duke’s daughter, who succeeded to one of his titles as Baroness Kinloss, is now the head of the ancient family. Her son and heir, the Master of Kinloss, is a curate at Nottingham, and recently married a daughter of the blacksmith at the village of Stowe.