291
PUBLIC PECORD
OFFICE
།། ༄། ། ། །
Reference
C.O.882/12
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livelihood of the great majority of the inhabitants, combined with the fact that very little money is expended from private funds on the scientific as contrasted with the practical side of agricul- tural industries, must dominate our conclusions. It is possible for us to propose readjustments in detail and to recommend changes in the methods by which certain agricultural work is either financed or conducted; it is not possible for us to advise that the Colony as a whole should spend less money on the improvement of its agriculture or, in the narrower aspect of our terms of reference, for us to find from the Agricultural Department economies with which to help in balancing the Colonial budget.
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2. References to the Department of Agriculture are widely scattered through the Mauritius Estimates. Head 25, Agriculture, provides for an expenditure of Rs.281,368 on the department as a whole, and indicates two special groups, the Farm School and the Sugar Cane Research Station. Other charges for the Farmı School are Rs.4,315 and item 12 shows an allowance of Rs.500 paid to the Lecturer, Farm School Cadets (the charges for cadets are separately given), without indicating that the officer who re- ceives that allowance is the Assistant Agricultural Officer, most of whose time is given to the School.
The Sugar Cane Research Station, costing Rs.53 204 is charged against Revenue items IV, 35-7, which are contributions of Rs.26,667 from the Empire Marketing Board, Rs.9,000 from the Improvement and Development Fund, and Rs.13,537 from the Agricultural College Fund.
Revenue item I, 2 (a) provides Rs.40,000 from a special export duty for the purpose of the campaign against phytolus smithii : Expenditure item 25 (37) shows Rs.43,000 spent on this object : the balance of Rs.3,000 together with Rs.4,740, being the cost of the Chief Phytalus Officer and his two Assistants (items 15 and 18), is charged against general revenues, and an additional sum of Rs.72,000 is also spent on this campaign and charged to the Development Fund.
The budget provides for certain veterinary work (Head 25, items 3, 13, 17, 30, and 31) and the Director is also charging Rs.1,000 against a Stockbreeders Subsidizing Fund for the purchase of a bull. This fund is item 6 of the Development Fund and amounts to Rs.30,000 of which only Rs.2,563 has been spent. Rs.6,400 is to be spent in the current year.
The budget also allots Rs.16,000 for maintenance of experimental stations, an amount which would appear to be inadequate, but is actually supplemented by allotments from the grant of Rs.25,000 for Minor Industries, which is included in the Development Fund. Part of this grant is used for experimental field work. The budget Head 19 provides Rs.16,690 for the experimental station in Rodrigues.
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Appendix VIII* gives the accounts of a special export duty on sugar, Rs.60,000, which is intended for the maintenance of the Agricultural College and, supplemented by small sums from fees, pays the cost of special allowances to officers of the department for working in the College, Rs.3,000 towards the cost of the Director of Agriculture-the full cost of two Sugar Technologists who spend at least one third of their time on the work of the department as apart from the College, and Rs.13,537 for the Sugar Cane Re- search Station: the total expenditure is Rs.66,267.
Appendix IX* gives the details of the cost of the Government Dairy, and includes allowances to two officers whose full time is given to the Dairy, but whose pay is charged to general revenues. A reference to the Statement of Assets and Liabilities is necessary in order to discover that part of the Dairy revenue shown in Appendix IX is an "advance
now amounting to nearly Rs.30,000, in other words, the loss on the Dairy is charged against the surplus balances of the Colony. The rest of the Dairy income is obtained from sales partly to the public and partly to the Medical Department for hospital diet.
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The sale of plants from the garden and the products of the experiment stations are items of general revenues, but Rs.800 from the sale of paddy is credited to Appendix VI* and sustains the declining fortunes of the Development Fund. The budget does not show separately the officers in charge of ornamental gardens or of experimental plots. Co-operative credit has a special inspec- tor, as well as part of the time of the Director and the Senior Agricultural Officer. A small sum is paid in fees by the Societies, the Government loan to which is shown as an advance in the statement of Assets and Liabilities.
Lastly, we should mention the case of the Tobacco Officer, who having once been Agricultural Superintendent of Rodrigues has half his pay, i.e., Rs.750, charged to the budget of Rodrigues, Head 19, while half the pay, a house allowance of Rs.1,000, and a rent allowance of Rs.500 are charged to the Development Fund allotment of Rs.25,000 for Minor Industries to which we have drawn attention. A further proposal is that part of the Tobacco Officer's pay should be charged to the special revenues of the tobacco warehouse.
3. The department is organized in divisions which indicate the scope of the work more clearly than does the financial system. Research is or should be represented by three divisions, the Sugar Cane Research station, the Botanical and the Entomological Divi. sions, with which may be associated the small Chemical Division and the Agricultural Statistician. The Educational Branch is com- posed of the College of Agriculture and the Farm School and, looking at the subject from a different aspect, we might include in this group the Co-operative Societies division. The remaining
i.e., to the Estimates.
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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