Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: [v. 35, no. 882]: February 7, 1885

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February 1, 1885 The Record and Guide. 123 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broad-way, N". "X". TERMS: ONE YEAR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Conmiimications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. FEBRUARY 7, 1885. The new Real Estate Exchange, it is now settled, will open in March. A committee has been apiwinted to celebrate the event with fitting ceremonies. It is understood that the exchange is now in fact the owner of fhe salesroom No. Ill Broadway, the good will and business of whicli have been purcliased from the heirs of the late owner, Frank Fowler. The salesroom will be kept open until the hall of the new exchange is in readiness when it will be closed and its archives removed to the new real estate centre in Liberty street. There will be twenty-two auctioneer stands in the new exchange and it has been decided to limit the competition for them to members of the exchange who are auctioneers and to dealers who now have stands at No. Ill Broadway. The exchange might make more perhaps by throwing the stands open to general competition but that coui-se might deprive reputable auctioneers of a chance to transact busine.ss, and would open the way for advertising schemes having little or no relation to real estate. The object in view is to help all existing real estate interests. All the old tenants of the new exchange building have renewed for the year and the officers say that the new offices will all be rented before the Ist of May. The total rental will amount to at least 6 per cent, on the capital stock of the exchange, which i^ $.500,000. This, of course, is exclusive of what will be derived from the business of the auction- room and the other sources of income. AH the recent sales of the Btcck of the exchange have been above par. It seems incredible that an Arab victory in northeastern Africa .sliould put up the price of grain in Chicago, and dieck an advance in tho stock market ;of New York. Yet, sucli was the effect of the fall of Kartoum on Tliursday and Friday hist. The better price of wheat was because it was supposed that the British defeat would lead to complications in Europe that might bring on a gen¬ eral war, in which event, of course, there would be a heavy demand for our grain ; but war also would lead to tlie selling of American securities, which would lower prices on the New York stock market. All this shows how sensitive are the great exchanges to news from any part of the world. But the business situation, notwithstanding, continues to improve. Tliere is unquestionably a better state of feeling in all departments of trade. The metals are in greater demand which shows that tools are needed, also a sign for better times coming. The stock market has been buoyant, due to the undoubted increase in the receipts of the railroads and the better tone pervading busi¬ ness. There is every evidence, too, that capitalists are getting tired of liaving their funds idle in bank earning no interest. A very active demand has sprung up in bonds wliich are sure of SJ^ per cent, interest or less. It looks now as tliough March and April would see a large dejiletion of the great surplus over the legal requirements now iu our banks. The i eal estate market also has become more active and it now seems certain that we will have a good building year. There will be very few costly structures erected, but an unusually large number of modest dwellings will be constructed on the west side, the upper end of the island and in the Twenty-tUird and Tweiity-fou th wards. There will be many improvements also in store property on the avenues. A high license bill has been introduced into the Pennsylvania Legislature, levying a tax of $500 per annum upon licenses to sell liquor in cities of the first and second-class ; $250 to be charged for cities of the third, fourth and fifth class, and $150 in all other cities, towns and villages. Tiie money is to l)e paid into the county treas¬ uries : this is in addition to the tax which now is paid to the State Treasury. There ought to be a high license law in this State. It is computed that ten out of the fifteen cents paid over the counter for drinks are clear profit to the vender. A high and stringent license law would greatly reduce the number of liquor saloons and add to the respectability of the busiuess. In the Western cities this has been found a profitable source of income. In Chicago, where the law was not strictly enforced because of the opposition of Mayor Harrison, the city treasury profited bv the license tax tl.fiOO.OOO. An effective license law in New York would bring us in at least $3,000,000 ; almoot enough to support our public schools. Prime Minister William E. Gladstone in a letter to the Tribune of this city makes an appeal for a union in sentunent and action between the United States and Great Britain. The Pall Mall Gazette is also out with an article pleading for an understanding between English-speaking peoples. It argues that tlie newly awakened ambition of the United States to take part in interna¬ tional affiiirs, as shown by recent treaties and the presence of Amer¬ ican representatives at the Berlin-Congo conference, are steps in the direction of a practical union between Great Britain and the United States. The meaning of all this is that England finds herself i.solated in Europe by tho newly developed foreign policy of the Cerman Empire. Her relation to her ancient ally, France, is very much strained, and in her eagerness for new allies she has formed a combination with Italy, and has allowed the latter country to become possessed of territory on the Red Sea. Tliis letter of Mr. Gladstone and the article in the Pall Mall Gazelle are meant to pave the way for some understanding between the " mother coun¬ try" and her giant offspring this side of the Atlantic. In Premier Gladstone's letter occurs the following statement of an important fact : " Baron Ziucke, no incompetent calculator, reckons that the English-speaking peoples of the world an hundred years hence will jirobably number a thousand millions. Some French author, wliose name I unfortunately forget, in a recent esti¬ mate places them some\ifhat lower ; at what precise figure I do not recollect, but it is like 600 or 800 millions. A century back I suppose they were not much, if at all, beyond fifteen millions ; I also sup¬ pose we may now take them at an hundred." The future increase will, of course, be greatest in this country, but the islands of the Pacific are increasing marvellously in numbers. The Greater Britain of the future will not be in the North Atlantic, but in the South Pacific, and our future contests for power and world-wide com¬ merce will be with the English-speaking nations at the antipodes. When America has a foreign policy worthy of herself it will take tliese into account, as well as the powers heretofore so mighty whose headquarters are east of the Atlantic and north of the Medi¬ terranean Sea. --------•-------- The reform in the land laws seems to be " in the air " in every part of the civilized world. A bill is about to be introduced into the Dominion Parliament to change the system of land registration in the northwestern provinces of Canada, so as to facilitate land transactions in all the new territories. Bradstreets thus summarizes the bill as it has been prepared in Winnipeg: " By this act the old method of registering deeds upon every change of proprietorship and searches for abstract of titles will be done away with, and a certificate only from the registrar will in future be necessary to establish ownership. In cases of sale or transfers, simply transfer certificate to purcliase will be rei]uired, which in turn will be de¬ posited with the registrar, who will issue new certificates." In other words this is the Torrens act which has been so long in oper¬ ation in Australia and New Zealand, and which has proved so suc¬ cessful in facilitating transfers and relieving purchasers of the costs, waste of time and uncertainty of title, which are such a nui¬ sance to land owners and purchasers in the United States. Prussia has similar land laws to these, and the French land system has for half a century been in advance of that of Great Britain and the United States for cheapness and certainty. The land reformers in the British Islands are openly agitating for the Torrens laws, which, if naturalized in England, Wales and Scotland, would effect a mighty revolution. »--------- It is to the credit of Dwight H. Olmstead that he was the first American to draw attention to the great superiority of the Austra¬ lian land laws as compared with those in vogue in the United States. The essential feature of Ihe Torrens laws is the guarantee of the title by the government, wliich it does by recognizing tha record in the land register's oflice as valid. But Mr. Olmstead has been induced to give up his advocacy of the Torrens laws, at least for the present, out of deference, we hear, to the opinion of tlie lawyers who do not believe, or want to believe, that simplicity and certainty of title, and very little waste of time or money are possi¬ ble in the land laws of this country. Real estate owners and dealers, however, will look at this matter from a different stand¬ point, and will be likely to think that what is practicable in Aus¬ tralia, New Zealand and Prussia cannot be impossible in the United States. Mr. Olmstead and his friends are trying to patch up the old laws so as to relieve real estate people from some of the pains and penalties now imposed by our preposterous land laws. They want to make titles a little more certain, and relieve purchasers of some of the needless expense to which they are now subject, but real estate owners and dealers will never rest satisfied until they get rid of all unnecessary impediments to the transfer of real property. Tn tlie Pnissinn Innrl Ip-tra tli a o-iiQi-Qr ..^i. 1----Al... .