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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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out improvements, should be entitled to the new lease at a fair rent to be established by the local courts.
55. With regard to Government property we recommend that lands should be given on long lease for ninety-nine years to present tenants at the same rent which they are now paying. Our laws on long lease with regard to agricultural lands should be modified in the sense that, whilst a sale or transfer of the whole tenement might be allowed, no sub-concessions of long lease should be allowed, and that the owner be at liberty to retake possession of the land, without indemnity, should it at any time fall out of cultivation. The concession of its agricultural lands on long lease would effect a considerable saving in expenditure to the Government.
56. The security arising from a long lease, or at least the security arising from a right of a renewal of lease, will be a healthy inducement to our farmers to carry out improvements and to develop the land to its utmost capacity.
57. We also recommend that lands not now under cultivation (rocky lands) be given on long lease at peppercorn rent for ninety-nine years, on condition that such lands should be improved and turned into agricultural lands or for the plantation of carob, fig, almond trees, etc.
58. Facilities of Credit.-Our fariners are not rich, and as a rule have not the necessary capital at their disposal to effect improvements or to meet temporary difficulties due to the failure of crops or other circumstances. At present they are obliged to have recourse to middlemen who advance money for the purchase of the seed, cattle, etc., and act as agents for the sale of the crops, but who never advance money for improvements. Owing to such advances the farmers are bound to the middlemen, and cannot dispose of their goods except through them. We recom- mend that an agricultural bank with a small capital be established to make the necessary advances. It should be a Government institution, and the advances should be made at a fair rate of interest. This measure would be beneficial and not difficult to carry out, inasmuch as such advances of money should by law have a preferential claim, after rent, on the crops, and the borrower should be liable to criminal pro- ceedings if he disposes of the crops without repaying the advance. The necessary capital would not be large, and would ultimately be remunerative to the Govern- ment. Of course any advances for improvements would have to be spread over a number of years; the bank to be managed by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department.
59. Agriculture and Fisheries Department.-At present there is no such department. In 1844 the Società Medica d'Incoraggiamento founded the Società Economico Agraria del Gruppo di Malta. Even at that early date it was recog- nized that what our farmers really required was help in dealing with diseases of plants. This society for several years was encouraged by Government, and model farms were started in different parts of the island. The usefulness of this society has since some years greatly declined. In 1902 an Inspector of Agriculture was appointed, but, owing to the multifarious duties which are assigned to him out- side the sphere of agriculture and not in any way connected with it, he cannot, with all the good will in the world, possibly devote to the subject the attention it requires.
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60. We cannot, therefore, too strongly recommend the institution of a proper Agricultural Department. Such department should have at its head a thoroughly qualified Director of Agriculture, assisted by a Plant Pathologist; the latter might be at the same time Professor of Natural History at the University, but should not have any other duties. It has been above remarked that our farmers, as prac- tical men, obtain good results from their farms, but are uneducated in the sense that they do not always know what is required in foreign markets, and cannot It would be the duty of the officers of the Agricul- always cope with plant diseases. tural Department to get into touch with the farmers, give practical lectures and assistance, and keep up experimental farms, which should be established in various parts of the island.
61. Besides a Department of Agriculture and Fisheries we recommend the formation of a Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, to be composed of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor as Chairman, the Director of Agriculture as Secretary, the Superintendent of Public Gardens and Plantations, the Plant Pathologist, the Veterinary Surgeon, a gentleman farmer appointed by the Government, a
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gentleman well conversant with the export trade of local produce, appointed by the Chamber of Commerce. This Board should have the power, subject to Govern ment approval, to frame regulations for the control and improvement of agricul- ture and fisheries, and should be the official adviser of the Government in all matters connected with agriculture and fisheries. The Board would at the outset be entrusted with the formation of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, as we have only suggested above the creation of the two essential posts, the Director and the Plant Pathologist.
62. The formation of a proper Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the institution of the Board would be the means of increasing production by giving the farmers that technical education and advice which they now lack, and as a natural consequence would be the means of developing a number of closely allied industries, such as tinning of local products which are occasionally wasted, pickling, making of jams and marmalade, distillation of alcohol, etc.
63. When the Agricultural Department will be established the amounts which the Government now pays to the Società Economico Agraria under different headings would all cease and would form part of the expenditure of the new Department.
64. Even before the Agricultural Department is formed we suggest that, in order to favour plantation of trees, etc., the Superintendent of Public Gardens should be allowed to give advice with regard to plantations, without the neces- sity, which now exists, of having to apply to the Superintendent of Public Works for authority.
65. Exportation of Local Agricultural Products.-The success of our agri- culture mainly depends on exportation, for which the principal products are:--
66. Potatoes. The importance of the export trade in this article may be gathered from the following figures:-
1910-11. £67,632
1911-12. £129,508
*
1912-13.
£109,569
1913-14.
1914-15. £98,593 £107,298
The Malta potato, particularly the yellow flesh variety, was very much appre- ciated in Germany, and in restaurants a higher price was charged for such potatoes. The seed, which is imported into Malta from Ireland, is especially grown there for Malta, because the quality of this potato can resist the weather conditions and peculiarities of the soil.
67. As the Chamber of Commerce in their report of 1913 rightly observed, Malta potatoes are greatly appreciated abroad, where they generally obtain favour- able prices when they are placed on the market before the produce of other countries. In competing with foreign produce local potatoes are at an advantage owing to their quality, but at a disadvantage on account of an initial cost of pro- duction by far greater than that of the produce of other countries. The seed is imported, and is subject to a not insignificant tax, so that to its cost in the country of origin one has to add freight and import duty. The produce must be re-exported and its cost is thus increased by the expense of the re-exportation. For this reason when the potatoes do not arrive on the foreign market before those of other countries the superiority in quality is more than counterbalanced by the price. The Chamber in that report recommended that the duty on seed potatoes and not on the rest of imported potatoes should be abolished. We fully endorse the recom- mendation of the Chamber of Commerce. We expected that Ordinance No. III. of 1917 would have removed the duty on seed potatoes, as it exempted other raw materials. As the law now stands this article in normal times is taxed more than the five per cent, charged on other importations. The tax is heavily felt when the foreign markets are difficult to negotiate; it should be abolished as injuring the principal article of exportation, and as being a duty specially levied against a product of the United Kingdom exported to a British Colony.
68. The production of potatoes might be greatly increased if a proper system of irrigation were adopted or otherwise the water-supply were to be augmented. Security of tenancy and advances of the necessary capital to farmers would induce them to make researches for water with a little encouragement on the part of the proper authorities.
We recommend that the Government should secure the services
of an expert from abroad to study the question of irrigation, or at least that the Government should import a water finder at a cost of about £200, if after insti- tuting inquiries such a machine is found suitable for Malta; it could be let on hire to the farmers at a small fee, and the outlay would in this way very soon be recovered. The engineer of the Waterworks Department might easily show the farmers how to use the machine.