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A partial scheme, comprising the clearing of the waterway and the erection of stop-banks, was completed so as to minimize the danger and damage from flooding by the Ashburton and Hinds Rivers, and a recent major flood demonstrated the effectiveness of the works carried out. A number of river-protection works were completed in the West Coast district of the South Island. Rehabilitation op Flax-milling Industry. In pursuance of the policy of the Government in regard to the rehabilitation of the flax-milling industry, considerable work was carried out in and around Foxton. In, Foxton itself the Department supervised the erection of the various buildings required by the New Zealand Woolpack and Textiles, Ltd., to house the extra machinery for the expansion of the woolpack industry as a national undertaking. Suitable arrangements were made for the provision of amenities for the welfare of the employees at the factory, which, it was anticipated, will employ over four hundred workers. Major developmental work was undertaken by the Department in regard to the Moutoa Estate, which was acquired by the Government for development as a flax plantation. The flax is to be used for supplying fibre to the woolpack-factory. The total area of 4,621 acres is being developed over a four-year programme, and a considerable amount of work is being entailed on account of the infestation of the area with willows, fescue, and other noxious growths. Machinery has been used to advantage especially in heavy clearing work, although the nature of the land does not permit of its fullest use. The activities undertaken have included heavy and light clearing, ring-barking willows, ploughing and disking, planting flax, thickening up flax areas where flax was not growing in payable quantities, cultivation of areas of planted flax, drainage, fencing, roading, and the erection of necessary buildings. Up to one hundred and thirty men have been employed on the area, and very valuable work is being done. Land-clearing. The scheme initiated by my predecessor in office whereby the Department's heavy machinery was hired to farmers for clearing land of stumps, logs, and second growth has been maintained with satisfactory results. The cost of bringing such land into cultivation by methods formerly employed was_ so uneconomic that many areas could only have remained indefinitely as semi-waste land. It is now evident that the use of machinery for stumping, logging, clearing, ploughing, &c., has enabled many hundreds of acres of this land to be brought unto early production at a figure which the farmer has been able to finance without difficulty. During the yeax .10,000 acres of land were cleared of stumps and growth, 3,000 acres were ploughed and cultivated, and 70 miles of internal farm roads or tracks were formed under the land-clearing scheme. TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATION FOR FARM WORKERS AND CHEESE WORKERS. Last year, when it was desired to increase primary production, arrangements were made to provide farmers with temporary accommodation on their farms for both married and single workers. The standard of accommodation provided was similar to that used on large public-works construction jobs, and the arrangement was that the temporary accommodation for married men was to be available for the duration of the war, and a season after, at a small weekly rental. In the case of single accommodation this would be purchased outright or rented at a small weekly rental on the same conditions as for married accommodation.

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