Preventable Flood Damage A useful article in last MOnday's Daily .
Mail, draws opportune attention to the need for Government action to protect crops and property from the flood menace of which so much of the country has had disastrous experi- ence in the past fortnight. The Catchment Boards set up by the 1927 Land Drainage Act are functioning to the berit of their ability, but they are crippled for lack of funds.
Drainage in the per Areas is provided for to the extent of a 60 per cent. grant where necessary, but vast areas under the care of the Thames, Trent and Ouse catchment authorities must rely on special appeals to the Ministry of Agriculture for specific schemes. It is time a properly co-ordinated plan, with adequate expenditure guaranteed by the Treasury, was put forward by the Minister of Agriculture. If we are prepared to spend money on the control of the waters of the Nile, we should be prepared'to spend a proper sum on the control of our wayward English rivers. Against expenditure on public works so undeniably important as this there is no case at all.
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