METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD BILL (By Order).

Part of Private Business. – in the House of Commons am ar 18 Chwefror 1935.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Lieut-Colonel Sir Arnold Wilson Lieut-Colonel Sir Arnold Wilson , Hitchin

I do not attempt to represent the constituency. I can only say that, from the information which I have received from one body, that the land has been in the possession of one man since 1919. I did not say which man. A great deal of money has been largely devoted to irrigation with water which is supercharged with oxygen and nitrogenous and mineral salts. The soil has no parallel in England, and it cannot be reproduced in less than four or five years. The Metropolitan Water Board may have to wait for 12 months to get a new site, but the owner of this land will have to wait four or five years. Ten thousand tons of manure have been dug into this land, and that has no parallel anywhere else in England, so far as I know.

There have been widespread protests from persons who are entitled to respect. Eight of the leading horticulturists in England wrote a letter of protest which, so far as I can see, has been completely ignored by the Metropolitan Water Board. I was informed, I think I am permitted to say, that the Royal Society have recently addressed a protest to the Metropolitan Board, and in other directions, in regard to this scheme. The Royal Society have always been regarded as the unofficial adviser of the Government in matters of this sort, and I suggest that their doubts cannot be resolved if this House decides to pass the Bill without the Instruction.

Finally, we have to consider the ultimate effect upon agriculture. Two or three times in the past few years good farmers within a few miles of London and close to the markets have been turned out at a few months' notice in order to make room for development. In no language in the world except English is land which is devoted to agriculture described as sterilised, while land which is devoted to the construction of shacks and bungalows is described as developed. We ought to consider agriculture as one of the major needs in the vicinity of large towns. There is no substitute for really fresh vegetables. I referred to the wages bill as £10,000 a year; that is only the wages paid to the men who are actually working on the land. There is all the transport, and other charges to be reckoned in.

From the point of view of direct labour, this reservoir will deprive the country of the regular subsistence of a, far larger number of men than will be given employment by its construction. There are other reservoirs, as the hon. and gallant Member for Chertsey (Sir A. Boyd-Carpenter) has said. There are other areas, but more expensive. Surely it is worth while for us to require the Metropolitan Water Board not to consider solely its own interests, to consider, not solely the interests of those who drink water, but of those who eat as well. Man does not live entirely by drinking water, and even if some of us have occasionally to do with our baths only half filled with water, that is better than having our stomachs only half filled with food.