HC Deb 14 December 1893 vol 19 cc1379-80
MR. A. C. MORTON

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the reclamation of slob lands on tidal rivers and other places in the United Kingdom; whether he has seen Sir J. Rennie's Report, dated 1839, on the projected reclamation of 150,000 acres in the Wash; whether he is aware of the success of these reclamations on the Forth and Tay and in Holland; whether he has seen the Report on the reclamations carried out on the Forth and Tay in the Transactions of the Highland Agricultural Society; whether he is aware that these reclamations have been profitable to those who have carried out the undertakings, have added to the production of the country, and that when carried out by the Government on a large scale, as in Holland, they have benefited both the people and the Government by largely increasing the production of the country; and whether, with a view to find useful, necessary, and productive employment for the unemployed, especially the labouring classes, in this country, he will as speedily as possible consider the advisability of carrying out in the United Kingdom the reclamation of all available slob-lands for agricultural and other purposes?

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

The subject of the reclamation of slob-lands on tidal rivers and other places in the United Kingdom is one of the greatest importance, but on which the Government have, I believe, no special means of information whatever. I look upon the reclamation of waste lands as a matter of the greatest interest, and one that can be best pursued by private capital and enterprise. While, however, I do not give an absolute opinion on this subject, it is plain that if the Government were thinking of approaching it they would have to approach it by the institution of some special and formal means of inquiry as to the amount of land that might possibly be made available as an addition to the surface of the country. I do not think that it is likely to be made available in connection with the temporary want of employment, because it is clear that such an undertaking would require much time to organise; and, moreover, if the unemployed could be set to work on reclamation it would require a shifting of the population probably as a preliminary operation.