A NOVEL SCHEME FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12401, 17 November 1908, Page 4

A NOVEL SCHEME FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.

Rev. C. Silvester Home, appreciating the seriousness of the British unemployed problom, in view of the coming winter, -makes a very original and ''striking suggestion for a solution in the < 'Daily News." He has in mind the land hunger and the demand for small holdings which are (in his opinion) being so slowly realised/ Then he proceeds to refer to the famous Canal Commission, which has been pursuing its investigations for a long time. If motor-barges are to . be ' employed" along the great waterways, and the canals are to /become again effective highways of traffic, . he says the banks must be strengthened . and the canals must be deepened. This is a long, arduous j and expensive business, capable of. employing almost an indefinite number of workmen. But what benefit would accrue to the nation, and how should it be helped in' the settlement of the land problem? My answer is this: "Let the Government boldly nationalise one of the principal canals at present probably in- the possession of a railway company. Let us suggest the great canal system that links London to the Midlands. Let the nation take over a good wide strip of land along either batik, as the, Manchester Ship Canal Company did when that enterprise was planned.; L°et us resolve to divide the whole of this land up into agricultural holdings, erect suitable buildings,- and let them at a moderate rent. The canal put into coridition for motor traffic, will Tte superior to any light railway for the transit of produce. Right through the centre of. England you will create a new Denmark or Holland. The land will be most favourably placed for pureposes of irrigation, and anyone, who has travelled far along the banks of the -canal I have in my mind must have been impressed by two things, that as a means of transport it is a wasted asset at present, and that* the land is of excellent quality, suitable'either for dairy purposes or for growing crops and fruit." The advantagea for such a scheme are, he. claims, these: 1. The money spent*, on providing work for the unemployed will not be frittered away on doing things which are worth very little when they are "done. 2. The deepening and strengthening of the canal will absorb an immense amount of. competent labour? 3. The erection of buildings for holdings will find occupation for a multitude of carpenters, masons, etc. 4. Holdings will exist in fact, and not on paper. 5. Occupiers will be able to. get, cheap transport for their produce to good markets. 6. It will be a first step to otter xia/fcioMsxlisa-tioii j>r-ojocrts sboTilcL it prove successful. 7. It will justify the existence of. the Local Government Board." .