depends on two things—on the cost of the house, and the wage of the man. What does the cost of the house depend on? It depends on five things: the cost of the land, the cost of developing it, the cost of constructing the house, the interest payable on the capital invested in it, and the rates that have to be paid upon it. Those are the five directions in which we must seek to economise. Let us take them one by one.
We often hear it said that the price of land enters to such a very slight extent into the total cost of a house, that it need not trouble us. Except in the centre of great cities, the price of a site, taking a fair average, is only about £35, or say 30s. a year, or 7d. a week, including the cost of the roads and the sewers. That seems to be nothing; but the reason is that, on account of the cost of land, we squeeze 30, 40, and 50 houses to the acre, and so the site purchased is excessively small. Those long dismal streets are, in the first instance, the result of the cost of land. In the country, where it is cheap, we see houses
