§ 68. Brig.-General BROOKEasked the Minister of Agriculture which, if any, of the farm settlements started under the Land Settlement Act of 1919 is being run at a profit, and the expenditure to date which has been incurred in this direction by the State?
§ Major Sir HARRY BARNSTON (Controller of the Household)I have been asked to reply. My hon. and gallant Friend's question presumably refers to the profit-sharing farms established by the Ministry under the Small Holdings (Colonies) Acts, 1916 and 1918. Out of six properties acquired for this purpose, four are no longer retained by the Ministry; of the remaining two, one is at Amesbury, Wiltshire, and the other at Patrington, East Yorkshire. The Ames-bury farm is being worked without loss, the average return obtained over the six years that it has been in operation being about 487 per cent. per annum on the farming capital originally invested in the undertaking. For further particulars of the results on these two farms reference should be made to the volume of "Trading Accounts and Balance Sheets, 1923–24," where the facts relating to each are fully set out.