PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Gost.
Appended is an estimate showing the cost for the first year and for subsequent years of the Department outlined,
If it be criticised as excessive, the answer must be that it is not more expensive than other departments of the same or less importance, for example law, medicine, education, public works and local board, and that all of it is productive work. Further, a considerable amount of the cost is on account of work which has been neglected, responsibility which has been dodged, for years past. Finally, those responsible for agriculture in Seychelles, Government and planters and peasants alike, have brought their agriculture to such a pass that strenuous efforts and expense are necessary to retrieve the position.
The actual difference in annual expenditure now and that proposed is Rs.12,739, which in five years would amount to Rs.63,695. In addition three non-recurrent items are estimated for which amount to Rs.11,000, making a total for five years of Rs. 74,015. The necessary thing therefore is to find a round sum of Rs.75,000 during the next five years.
Twenty-five years ago, the West Indies had arrived at the stage through which Seychelles appears to be now passing. Neglect of their chief industries, lack of any effort to develop new ones, degeneration of their livestock, and a low standard of education and of agricultural knowledge had culminated in an apparently hopeless position The creation of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies in ten years altered the whole outlook and the whole financial position. The work of this institution and its organisation has made it the model on which every department in the British tropies has been since created.
The Imperial Department was started by means of a large grant-in-aid from the British Parliament given at first for ten years and afterwards extended for a further period of ten years The grant still continues for the support of the head office and scientific staff in Barbados, to the extent of sume £5000 per annum. but the whole of the rest of the grant has been gradually assumed by the Colonies themselves as their financial affairs improved. The total staff now includes not far short of two hundred men, and the Department remains the soures from which large numbers of trained men are drawn for similar departments all over the world. Next year the head staff will be converted into a College of Tropical Agriculture
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with head-quarters in Trinidad, and the whole cost of supporting it will be assumed by the colonies.
From the point of view both of the West Indies and of Great Britain the grant-in-aid has been a sound investment. The Colonies have been brought from ruin and hopelessnes to prosperity and enlightenment, and their trade with Great Britain and Canada has increased by far more than the grant. If the Seychelles cannot see their my to providing for an efficient Department of Agriculture during their present period of depression, there would seem to be every chanos of obtaining from the Imperial Government help similar to that given to the West Indies, if they will place their position frankly before the British Government and point out the mutual advantages which would arise from such help. of £1000 per year for five years would suffice, and during that period trade could be improved to the extent of assuming the cost of the department on local funds.
G. Auchinleck.
15th December 1921.
A grant
400
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Appendix.
Estimated expenditure on reorganised department of agriculture
Seychelles.
Reorganised department. Present expenditure