§ 58. Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Minister of Agriculture why he has disallowed a grant of £84 approved by the late Minister of Agriculture to the Staffordshire County Council in aid of the employment of unemployed persons by the county council on the cleansing of watercourses in the parishes of Teddesley, Hay, and Penkridge; and whether he received representations from the county council urging that the unemployed recently engaged on the similar schemes at Rodbaston and Gailey shall be employed forthwith on the Penkridge scheme?
§ Mr. BUXTONThe grant referred to was in respect of a drainage scheme which was approved on 16th January, 1924, and was calculated to take three to tour weeks. By 28th March the scheme had not started, because there were no unemployed in the area. The proposal referred to in the last part of the question was to start the scheme with men from other schemes who would not be available till 10th May, but I his could not be agreed to in view of the fact that all these schemes were due to stop on 12th May, a condition which had been accepted by the county council when applying for a grant.
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREDo we understand that all these grants are stopped now for the year?
§ Mr. BUXTONYes. The decision that the schemes should be for the winter only was made by the late Government.