may be taken as an example of such arrangements for managing urban
cottage property. In the last report it is stated that the Company has
owned or managed 114 houses, and the directors are assured that the
sanitary conditions under which the tenants are housed have steadily
conduced to the lowering of the death-rate. The personal interest taken
in the tenants as well as in the houses by the managers has had a
marked influence for good. The scheme is self-supporting, and in 1917 a
dividend of 4-1/2 per cent, was paid.

Lastly, there should be some method, provided by public authority,
through which workers or other persons of small means can become owners
of their houses. Building societies came into existence with this
object, and were put under statutory regulation by the Legislature in
1836, and subsequently by an Act of 1874. In many cases facilities given
by building societies have been very useful in accomplishing the
original objects of such societies; in other cases, for reasons above
indicated, they have been a failure. By using the credit of the
Government money to enable properties to be acquired can be obtained, or
could have been obtained, at a lower rate. Instalments covering interest
at that rate and providing a sinking fund towards the repayment of the
principal would be of substantially less amount than the subscriptions
to the building societies, and would not exceed the rents tenants have
been accustomed to pay without any prospective advantage. Schemes to
practise thrift and to induce people to take a greater interest in their
homes and to enable them to acquire homes which are really attractive on
reasonable terms are to be encouraged by every means which the
Legislature or private individuals can adopt without causing
pauperisation. The object can be achieved on fair business terms and
without substantial risk of loss. Under the Ashbourne and the Wyndham
Acts in Ireland there has been, at all events until recently,