§ 75. Mr. LUNDONasked whether, in view of the fact that the Local Government Report for the year ending 31st March, 1912, does not contain any items in connection with the distribution of the million Grant for the Labourers Acts nor the places to which some of it has already been allocated, will the rural districts to which Grants have already been given, and those to which loans have been sanctioned, be published at once for the benefit of the public, and also the amounts given to each respective district?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Labourers Act of 1911 increased the sum of £4,250,000 fixed by the Act of 1906 to £5,250,000, and detailed particulars showing the amount sanctioned by way of loan in each rural district up to 31st March last are given in the Report referred to. The total sum sanctioned under both Acts was then £4,277,768. The publication now of separate particulars for the Act of 1911, without any reference to the amounts of loans obtained under the Act of 1906, would be misleading as regards the relative claims of the different rural districts for new loans for the purposes of the Acts. The additional million provided by the Act of 1911 is not a separate fund in which every rural district is entitled to participate, irrespective of the amounts already received out of the £4,250,000 previously granted.