D.—l

Considerable widening and improvement of roads was carried out in the early stages, but it was decided that much more beneficial results would be obtained if this money could be used to metal roads to backblock farms. This proposal was agreed to by the Unemployment Board, and the greater portion of the relief workers now on roads are employed on metalling schemes.

Annual Public Works Loan Expenditure and Expenditure per Head of Population, 1920 to 1932.

The included graph shows the annual public-works loan expenditure and the expenditure per head of population from 1920 to 1932. The estimated loan expenditure for the year 1932-33 has been added to show the continued drop from the year 1931. This graph shows that loan expenditure, after climbing from £2,250,000 in 1920 to over £8,000,000 in 1931, will this year drop below the 1920 figure, and that the expenditure per head of population has dropped from £5 7s. 6d. in 1931 to an estimate of £l 9s. 2d. for this vear.

III