FORESTRY BILL. (Hansard, 2 November 1921)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE EARL OF ANCASTER)

My Lords, this is one of the Bills which are intended to deal with the question of unemployment. Its object is to suspend for a period of six months subsection (3) of Section 3 of the Forestry Act, 1919. That Act gave powers to the Forestry Commissioners to make advances by way of grant to local authorities and to private individuals in respect of afforestation. But such a grant could only be made subject to the conditions in that subsection which this Bill proposes to modify. In order to get this grant very careful and complicated accounts have to be kept. Under the Forestry Act, as it stood, there have not been a very great number of landowners and local authorities who have taken advantage of this grant.

At the present time, in order to relieve unemployment in rural areas, a special grant of £ 250,000 is being made to the Forestry Commissioners to encourage forestry operations during the coming winter and spring, and it is proposed that part of this sum shall be spent by way of grant to local authorities and private individuals who undertake to carry out planting operations during this period. The Commissioners are satisfied that in existing circumstances advances by way of grant would not be readily accepted subject to the conditions imposed by the Act.

Your Lordships are; therefore, asked to pass this Bill, which enables grants to be made free from any conditions contained in the Act of 1919— which conditions, as 1 have explained, involve the keeping of very 140 accurate accounts. But those grants will be made subject to certain conditions, and the conditions are these:— (1) That the money voted is spent in relief of genuine unemployment; (2) that the proportion of ex-Service men taken on for the purpose of planting is not less than 75 per cent., if so many are available; (3) that the work undertaken for which a grant is made is carried out properly; (4) that the rate of wages is adequate— namely, the local agricultural wage. The Forestry Commissioners will have to inspect the operations and to certify that these conditions have been observed before the grant is made.

The Commissioners do not propose to insist that the recruitment for planting these areas should be done through the Labour Exchanges. I may say that personally I am pleased at that, because I believe in many agricultural districts a large number of the agricultural labourers never register at an Exchange and consequently would not be employed on this work if such a condition were insisted upon. We feel that there may be a considerable amount of unemployment in rural areas and that this is work which these agricultural labourers will be well qualified to carry out In addition, there are undoubtedly several schemes of re-afforestation which might be of great value to the country in future years, and which can be carried out by local authorities. Sonic of those schemes are at no very great distance iron' towns and it appears that this Bill will give a very great impetus to the local authorities concerned, and to private individuals, to go on with the work of afforestation, and be a means of employing people who would otherwise be out of work.

I do not know that I need dwell on the Bill at any greater length, though, if your Lordships wish for any further explanation, I shall be very happy to give it. I can only say, in conclusion, that this is work which we hope and trust may be of value to the nation in the long run and, therefore, is not entirely in the nature of a dole but of reproductive work. I have no doubt that it will employ a large number of people. At the same time I should like to impress upon your Lordships the fact that there is a reason for asking the House to pass this Bill and allow it to become an Act as speedily as possible. Most of your Lordships are aware that if planting is to be done successfully in the winter time it 141 must be done as early as possible in the month of November if there is any delay in passing the Bill and making the grant, the work of planting might be put off to the middle of December or to Christmas time, when it would be a very great waste of money to plant trees. I hope, therefore, that your Lordships will give a Second Reading to this Bill and allow it to go forward as quickly as possible.