LAND RECLAMATION 123 



Kingdom is still a country with a surplus population 

 that finds its outlet in emigration. In one way or other, 

 after all the exchanges have been effected, it may be 

 expected that a proportion of the £20 millions of 

 created wealth would find its way back to the State 

 in the form of taxation, and so go indirectly to reduce 

 its expenditure on the scheme. If instead of six we 

 postulate an extra ten million acres of arable land, 

 the annual expenditure would rise to £5 millions ; but 

 we should have gone a long way towards assuring the 

 independence of imports of food in time of war, and who 

 will say that such security had been dearly bought at a 

 cost equal to that which is annually expended on the 

 construction and maintenance of two battleships ! 



The other immediate step that should be taken, and 

 again preparations should begin before the war ends, 

 is to have in hand schemes for the reclamation of all 

 the waste land in the country that offers any prospect 

 of profitable development. The schemes will naturally 

 vary in their commercial aspects ; those that are 

 reasonably certain of success would be taken first, 

 leaving those on which the immediate return is more 

 doubtful to be started only if the pressure of unem- 

 ployment becomes so great that something in the 

 nature of relief work must be provided. At its worst 

 such work is creative and does result in some con- 

 tinuous revenue for the State — in increased employment 

 and increased production of food with all the industries 

 that follow in its train, so that the criterion of profitable 

 development can be very liberally interpreted. The 

 great value of reclamation work lies in the large num- 

 bers of the men, over and above the men to be per- 

 manently settled on the land won, who can be employed 



