Amount Expended. 83 



millions of it was advanced by the State, and 

 seven millions by private companies, A large 

 proportion of the first has now been repaid, 

 having been returned to the public exchequer, 

 principal and interest, and is no longer a charge 

 upon the land. Two-thirds of the whole have 

 been spent on drainage, the remainder on farm- 

 buildings, labourers' cottages, embanking, water- 

 courses, farm roads, reclamation, planting for 

 shelter, and enclosing. The expenditure through 

 such loans goes on with great regularity at an 

 average of half a million sterling a year, and the 

 loans are being redeemed and the charge ex- 

 tinguished at about the same rate. The extent 

 of work still to be done far exceeds what has 

 been accomplished, and so many new demands 

 arise to meet the changes in husbandry that the 

 system is likely to be a permanent one. It may 

 therefore be useful to consider its present mode 

 of working, the objections which have been made 

 to it, and whether any improvement can be in- 

 troduced which might facilitate its operation. 



An inquiry into this subject was undertaken inquiry 



1 ITT r T 1 • n -T-i /^ '^y Pa^rlia- 



by the House of Lords m 1873. The Com- ment into 



