When the Building Society issued its prospectus the plots abutting on the old roads A A A and B B B were sold at once, and the reason is obvious, viz., that the roads are ready made and sewered; and a note with regard to road B B B says, 'This road is a highway maintainable by the local authorities, who will provide a proper footway in front of the plots in due course.' The ratepayers as a whole are to provide pavements for the speculative builder in this particular instance, and it is evident that the owners of the plot and the Local Council had come to an agreement in the matter. The houses abutting on the new roads, Z Z Z, will, in addition to the purchase money for the land, be charged 3_s._ per foot frontage for sewers, and 'also such a proportion as their surveyor shall assess of the expense of repairing and maintaining the road or roads, until the same shall be handed over to the local authorities.' On an adjoining property the cost of 'making up' a private road was estimated at 12_s._ per foot run, so that the cost would amount to between 10_l._ and 11_l._ for a plot having a frontage of 18 feet, and might form a ruinous charge on some of the corner plots. The ground will accommodate 177 plots, and the plots facing the old roads fetched 3_l._ a foot. Of these there is room for fifty-nine, having a frontage of 20 feet each, so that the price paid for these at 60_l._ per plot would be over 3,500_l._; and if the remaining 118 plots fetched 40_l._ each (4,720_l._), the total price realised for this 9 acres would be over 8,000_l._, in addition to the charge for sewerage and road-making. When, moreover, it is remembered that the society may possibly hold a mortgage on every plot and every house, for which they get 5 per cent. and excellent security, it will be admitted that running a 'Building Society' is a tolerably profitable business. If all these plots are sold there will be a population of over 1,200 persons on 9 acres of ground, and the ratepayers will be at the charge not only of educating the children, but of providing hospitals for the segregation of infectious diseases, allotments, free libraries, open spaces, and additions to the sewerage works for dealing with the sewage of 1,200 persons. When a 'progressive' municipality sets to work to 'develop' its district (a speculative and hazardous process, which it should leave to private enterprise), the ratepayer soon begins to see that a great diversity of interests has to be served. The little shopkeeper (and it is of this class that Boards and Councils are largely composed) wants the greatest number of people on the smallest space; and he sees that in proportion as the dwelling has an insufficient curtilage, so are its inhabitants wholly and entirely dependent on the shop.