The matter now stands thus: we have got through the first quarter; have collected £2,672, mostly in silver; the quarter’s accounts are nearly ready to send in; we have completed the most pressing repairs; have emptied two streets, and plans for rebuilding them are decided on; tenders have been accepted for these, and they have been begun. Plans have been prepared for rebuilding and rearrangement of the whole estate, and these are now before the Commissioners for their consideration. They provide a site for rebuilding the parish school, an area of about an acre as a public recreation ground, the substitution of four wide for three narrow streets, and afford accommodation for 790 families in four-roomed and six-roomed cottages, cottage flats, and flats of three- and two-roomed tenements in houses in no case higher than three stories. But there remains one most important point still under the consideration of the Commissioners. It is whether this domain is to be leased to builders and managed by them and their successors for some eighty years or whether it is to remain under the direct control of the Commissioners. All of you who know anything of how much depends on management will realize how earnestly I trust that they may decide to retain the area, and may feel confident of finding representatives in the future to manage it for them on sound financial principles and in the best interests of tenants and landlords. Those who know what a country landlord can do in a village will realize the influence of wise government in such an area. This land is Church land, it adjoins the parish church, it is quite near the Talbot Settlement, established by, and named after, the Bishop of the diocese; surely it should not pass from the control of the owners. If clauses in leases were as wisely planned and as strongly enforced as possible, they could still not be like the living government of wise owners, and since needs and standards are for ever altering, many decisions involving change during the next eighty years may be desirable. PAYMENT OF RATES BY TENANTS. LETTER OF 1894.—In all these new cottages I am introducing the plan of arranging that the tenants should pay their own rates, the rent being fixed much lower to enable them to do this.