§ Mr. De Chairasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that the Downham Market Fen Drainage Commissioners, the Bardolph Fen Drainage Commissioners, the Stoke Ferry Fen Drainage Commissioners, the East of the Ouse, Polver, and Nar Internal Drainage Board, and the Hilgay Great West Fen Drainage Commissioners have passed a resolution urging the Government to make grants available immediately so that the heavy burdens at present placed on internal drainage districts arising out of the operation of the Land Drainage Act, 1930, may be substantially relieved; and whether he will give sympathetic consideration to this appeal, in view of the fact that the thinly-scattered populations 3081W of these areas make it impossible to raise the necessary funds, a 1d. rate in the Hilgay or Stoke Ferry areas only yielding approximately £4 per annum?
§ Mr. W. S. MorrisonI have not yet received the resolutions to which my hon. Friend refers, but I am not prepared to reopen the question of making grants to drainage boards (other than catchment boards) by considering grants in these particular cases.