924 



Land Drainage and Unemployment. 



[Jan., 



construction, and other researches have led to the conclusion 

 that in the near future, if not at the present time, embankments 

 can be constructed by machinery at a very much lower cost than 

 by hand labour. The adoption of such mechanical appliances 

 would, to some extent, overcome the difficulties of housing and 

 winter v^^eather conditions, but would render the work compara- 

 tively useless as a means of relieving unemployment. It was 

 mainly therefore on account of these difficulties that the 

 Government decided that no works of foreshore reclamation 

 should be undertaken with the funds now available. 



Land drainage work, on the other hand, by which is meant, 

 generally speaking, the improvement of water courses with a 

 view to the diminution of the injurious flooding and water-logging 

 of agricultural land, undoubtedly offers far greater opportunities 

 for useful relief works. It is even capable of being carried out 

 during the winter, and the difficulties involved are comparatively 

 small. It was therefore decided that the fund at the disposal of 

 the Ministry should be used only to assist works of land drainage. 



The primary object of the Ministry is the relief of unemploy- 

 ment in rural areas. The unemployed workers in these areas 

 are generally found in small groups over scattered districts, 

 and it will be apparent, therefore, that more effective relief can 

 be afforded by a large number of small schemes employing com- 

 paratively small numbers of men, than by a small number of 

 large schemes in isolated areas. Moreover the larger the 

 number of schemes the wider distributed becomes the benefit 

 to agricultural land. 



A further very substantial advantage of land drainage works 

 as compared with works of reclamation is that the former, if 

 interrupted by bad weather, can be resumed at any time where 

 left off, without any substantial amount of the work having to 

 be done over again; moreover, land drainage w^orks are not 

 necessarily confined to small schemes, and in suitable cases 

 larger works can be undertaken within a short distance of 

 urban areas which will relieve not only agricultural workers, but 

 considerable numbers of unemployed men from the towns. 



The offer of assistance which has been made by the Govern- 

 ment has up to the present been taken up very satisfactorily. 

 Up to the 17th December, 49 schemes submitted bv Drainage 

 Authorities and 13 schemes submitted by County AgTicultural 

 Committees had been approved. 



The estimated number of men to be employed was 8,003, and 

 the estimated number of man-weeks was 50,204. The estimated 

 cost of the schemes was as follows : — 



