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placed into productive work quickly it would have to be done on the already settled lands of the Dominion. In effect, this meant lands in private occupation where much developmental work still remained to be done, and which was not being done on account of the financial plight of the farmers. With this end in view, therefore, Scheme No. 4 was developed first, in two sections to suit the different circumstances of the farmer. Scheme 4a provided for those farmers who wished to secure additional labour on a weekly basis, and Scheme 4b for those who desired to have developmental work done on a contract basis. In both cases the keynote of the arrangement was the subsidizing and placing of additional labour and the carrying-out of developmental contracts on farms which, owing to the financial position of the farmers concerned, would not otherwise be engaged or done. Both Schemes 4a and 4b came into operation on the 23rd February, 1931. The employment offered being of a somewhat permanent character, it was hoped that as many as possible of the registered unemployed, particularly single men, would be drafted to farms and so gradually relieve the position in the more populous centres. Under Scheme No. 4a farmers willing to employ additional labour on their farms were offered the opportunity of obtaining such labour from the ranks of the registered unemployed, the selection of men being made by the Local Unemployment Committee. The farmer and the worker arranged the rate of pay, and the Board subsidized the actual wages up to 15s. per week for a single man and £1 ss. per week for a married man, a condition being that the employer found the man in board and lodging, or housing where necessary. The periods of subsidized employment varied from four to twenty-six weeks. Under Scheme 4b contracts could be arranged for developmental work on farms, such as bushfelling, scrub-cutting, rush-grubbing, stumping and logging, drainage of farm lands, cutting new drains and improvement of existing drains, clearing noxious weeds, fencing, and developmental work of a similar nature. The Board granted a subsidy of 33| per cent, of labour cost only, the maximum subsidy payable on any individual contract being limited to £75. The men employed were required to be engaged from the ranks of the registered unemployed, and the contract arranged on a co-operative basis. Applications for subsidy were to be forwarded through the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the district; the Field Inspector of the Lands Department inspected the work to be done, and reported thereon with a recommendation to the Unemployment Board. An individual farmer could apply for one or more subsidies under Scheme No. 4b, the idea being to have as many men as possible employed on small contracts. Each application was given individual consideration by the Board. These schemes have given farmers assistance which otherwise they could not have obtained, and have enabled them to put in hand a great deal of developmental work (clearing, fencing, draining, &c.) which, in the ordinary course, would not have been done. The results will be reflected in a benefit to the Dominion generally, by means of an increase in production and export, while unemployed men (whose claims are the main concern of the Board) have been found some work during the winter months. The total number of men actually employed under Schemes 4a and 4b at the 31st March, 1931, was 1,542, and the commitments entered into by the Board at that date were £17,821 and £1,402 respectively, or a total of £19,223. Taking the cases where employment under Scheme 4a terminated on or before the end of March and the completed portions of other engagements which extended beyond that month, it is estimated that 1,280 men were employed up to the 31st March at a cost in subsidies of £2,866. Of these men, approximately 918 were single and 362 married, and they worked an aggregate of 3,340 weeks, which on a basis of six days per week represents 20,040 workingdays. Approved applications for subsidized labour on a contract basis under Scheme 4b in respect of which the work was actually begun totalled fifty, and 155 men were engaged thereon. The labour cost of these contracts was £4,000, and the Board's subsidy £1,333, representing an average of 3-1 men per contract and an average subsidy of £26 13s. 2d. It is impossible to state the amount of work actually done through Scheme 4b up to the 31st March, and the foregoing figures represent commitments entered into by that date. The work in some cases would extend to April, the length of time of the contract being unimportant so far as the Board is concerned. Taking the total labour cost of these contracts and assuming that the average cost per man comes to 14s. per day, 5,715 working-days have been provided through the Board's subsidy offer under this Scheme. Scheme No. 5. —While launching Schemes 4a and 4b with the object of drafting unemployed men from the more populous centres into productive work on farms, the Unemployment Board, was fully alive to the fact that the numbers to be placed under these schemes would not be placed all at once, and that probably progress would resolve into a movement gradual at first but gathering momentum as their provisions became known. Since this rate of absorption would not cope with the alarming increase in. registrations of unemployed at all centres, it was imperative to make arrangements whereby some measure of relief could be afforded immediately to the great numbers of unemployed workers while waiting their reabsorption into industry. After very careful consideration, the Board decided that this could only be provided by soliciting the closest co-operation of all local governing authorities throughout the Dominion. These alone were in a position to provide suitable work sufficiently near the homes of the workers concerned to permit a policy of rationing on a basis within the compass of the Board's funds, which were now obviously inadequate to keep pace with unemployment on this scale. A factor to be considered, also, was that in any major relief scheme such as was obviously necessary it was only right that local authorities should take their share of responsibility in the care of the unemployed in their districts. With these different factors in mind, the Unemployment Board evolved Scheme No. 5, under which, in conjunction with the local authorities, it undertook to provide relief work for all qualified unemployed male wage-earners. Work under the scheme commenced on the 9th February.

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