July 13.
Some day' ago there was article in these columns on "The House of Our Dreams." That, fof course, is England, whether we go there on periodical leave, Ihope to go for good another day, or never go nor hope to go at But while dreams too often remain only dreams, there are pdseibilities nearer to hahd, worth consideration by the less visionary. It is the old issue between what we would and what we may; between gathering our rosebuds now or waiting for the larger blooms time will, perhhaps, never bring; the parable lof one squirrel turning restlessly in his wheel, while his brother contentedly chews and cracks the nuts.
Which reflections are excus._ ably prompted by a booklet received from the Asia Realty Company, all about the real estate market of Shanghai. Like eating and drinking, land and houses are one of the few sub-
Jiects on which everyone has something to say. Dukes and dustman meet on common ground lover the conduct of a kitchen chimney. Have we not read recently of King George lament-jing that he cannot put electric Hheating into Buckinghdm Palace?
a political barometer for serious thinkers land prices are unsurpassed. One notes that there is a strong upward tendency once more, which is comfortable for owners of land shares, if not for purchasers. However, there appears to be plenty of the latter." During 1927 all building, except dri houses actually under construc~ tion, came to a stop. But, from early this year, confidence fluttered her wings once more: There was a steady increase of thirty per cent. month by month in building activities and during May twenty-eight per cent. more building permits were applied for than in April. One page in the booklet tells us the sort of rent we should expect to pay for a house or flat of given accommodation. With all defer-fence it appears to us slightly optimistic, from the tenant's view-point, But on another page, dealing with general tendencies, we read: "More mutual trust and good will in evidence in all transactions."
Evidently landlords as a class have undergone a process of moral regeneration.
But for the *moment we are thinking less of tenants than of prospective owners, of those who may never realize the hou of their dreams, but might certainly get a very fair substitute locally, In the years after the war, the house famine led to an enormous output of equally hideous and jerry-built dwellings. One is consoled to reflect that most of them are simply bound to fall to bits in the near future. Such rotten work cannot stand this climate long. When they go, there are plenty of good designs waiting to replace them, Two of the most. delightful-looking houses illustrated in the booklet befor us, one borrowed from Spain, one from Italy. In old days! architects treated Shanghai as tropical place and built! accordingly. Then they—bethought them that for nine months it is cool, even very cold, and went to the other extreme.
Now comes the bright idea of copying from countries which can be both very hot and piercingly cold. The worst of these pleasant projects is that they have to be paid for. So does everything for that matter. We read that "funds for the fin-oncing of property holding can be obtained at reasonable rates."
So it becomes a question whether we might not cut down the entertainments a bit for a few years while we scrape up the higher monthly rent that will ultimately enable us to blossom out as landed gentry. There is a bitter saying that house property does not pay. But surely it is all a. question whether we measure profits by £.s.d. or what might be called moral gratification. And really that Italian design with the big room up in the tower is too seductive. A little costly? "Pooh pooh, my love," as Clu fauner's china-maniac says, money not so much an object: as a comfortable home."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.