§ 37. Mr. COCKSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amount which has been saved to the Treasury in the current financial year by the abolition of the grant towards the provision of allotments for the unemployed?
§ The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Sir John Gilmour)I have been asked to reply. The net expenditure in connection with the Government scheme for the provision of seeds, fertilisers, and implements for unemployed persons in England and Wales and in Scotland cultivating allotments for the cropping season of 1931 has been approximately £26,000, and assuming that the scheme had been continued this year on the same lines and to the same extent, it would have been necessary to have provided that sum in the Estimates this year. The decision that it was not possible on grounds of economy to continue the scheme this year, therefore, resulted in a saving of this amount.
§ Mr. COCKSIs not this economy doing more harm than good, and would it not be better to spend this money on providing allotments than on subsidising grand opera?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a matter of opinion.