259
TRINIDAD.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :---
C.O. 885
24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAMS -NOT TO
Enclosure 4 in No 99.
R. G. BUSHE,
Auditor-General.
REPORT BY CHAIRMAN OF THE GROUND PROVISIONS COMMITTEE. THE HONOURable the Colonial SecretARY,
C.
Estimated value of stock-in-trade and equipment Cash on hand, book debts, and mortgages, as per
firms' books
157,550 67
485,746 45
Additions to stock-in-trade and other receivables
119,534 92
762,832 04
STATEMENT SHOWING THE CONDITION OF THE Affairs of the ENEMY FIRMS (EXCLUD- ING THE COCOA ESTATES OF MESSRS. MAX REIMER AND P. F. COLLIGNON, THE REAL PROPERTY OF MR. S. E. JACOBSON, and the HousE PROPERTIES OF MRS. J. A. A. SCHEERER) IN LIQUIDATION, PREPARED FROM THE REPORTS OF THE Managers, as at 31st March, 1915.
during the liquidations
Total apparent assets
the Committee the Governor in Executive Council decided that no advance should be made after the 28th February, and due notice was given accordingly.
3. The Governor in Executive Council has also decided that all advances are to be repaid on or before the 31st instant, and the Receiver-General has been instructed to forward accounts for all amounts outstanding as soon as possible after the 15th instant and require payment by the 31st instant.
4. The rate of interest charged was fixed at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum. 5. The Ordinance validating and authorizing in the future the work of the Committee was passed on the 20th November, 1914, and was numbered 39 of 1914.
6. The Committee held fifteen meetings, the first on the 21st August, 1914, and the last on the 15th February, 1915.
15th February, 1915.
Stock-in-trade and equipment realized
146,202 98
Cash on hand, book debts, mortgages, and other
receivables realized
87,863 82
Total realizations to date...
234,066 80
Estimated value of stock-in-trade and equipment
still to realize Book debts, mortgages, and other receivables re- maining uncollected, as per firms' books
Total apparent uncollected assets...
406 11
503,958 91
504,365 02
Liabilities at commencement of liquidations Liabilities added during liquidations
305,556 75 30,807 98
Total liabilities
Liabilities outstanding
336.364 73
277,594 44
Amount distributed in dividends...
35,904 84
Expenditure on additions to stock-in-trade and
other receivables
38,797 43
Other expenditure
Cash in hand...
Cash in bank to credit of firms in liquidation
48,958 58 111 92 118,494 53
Colonial Treasury,
6th April, 1915.
234,066 80
D. SLYNE, Receiver-General, Chairman, Liquidating Committee.
Enclosure 3 in No. 99.
REPORT BY AUDITOR-GENERAL.
Temporary Advances to Estates from Public Funds.
REPORT in continuation of the report already submitted, dated the 25th Sep- tember, 1914. (Copy sent to Secretary of State in despatch No. 412, of 28th September, 1914.*)
The total number of applications received and dealt with by the Committee has amounted to 84, of which 77 were approved and seven were refused.
2. On the 28th February, 1915, the total sum authorized to be advanced was £9,971 158. 44d., of which £4,540 2s. 54d. had at the same date been either repaid or the authority for the advance had been cancelled; and on the recommendation of
* No. 95.
THE Committee appointed by His Excellency the Governor to deal with the local supply of ground provisions has the honour to submit the following interim report.
Immediately after the outbreak of the war the probability of the Colony experiencing a shortage of ground provisions became apparent, owing partly to the shortage of supplies received from Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Venezuela. On 10th August Mr. W. G. Freeman, then Acting Director of Agriculture, addressed a meeting of the Arima District Agricultural Society and urged the importance of planting quickly maturing crops. The Society took the matter up, issued placards, and advertised in the Press, and also asked that the Government should rent out alienated and other lands in small lots at a nominal rent. A request for Govern- ment assistance was made on the same day by Mr. J. J. McLeod, whose firm, Messrs. Gordon Grant & Company, had meanwhile instructed all the managers of their estates to plant provisions wherever possible.
His Excellency then appointed the following Committee: Mr. W. G. Freeman (Chairman), Honourable W. G. Kay, Messrs. A. V. Stollmeyer, A. B. Carr, F. Herrera, E. M. Lazare, and G. C. Wyatt, to take measures (1) to utilize to the best advantage the existing supplies, and (2) to encourage the growth of increased supplies.
1. In its endeavours to make fuller use of existing supplies of ground pro- visions the Committee asked all the Wardens for information as to the existence of localities in which provisions were grown in excess of local requirements and did not usually reach the markets. From the replies received it seemed probable that provisions would be purchasable for cash at Toco, Manzanilla, and Siparia, and brought to town for sale. The Government placed an advance of £150 at the services of the Committee for this work. Trial consignments from Manzanilla showed that the provisions received from this locality were not up to the standard of the Port of Spain market, and this district had to be abandoned. From Siparia the chief supplies have been of cassava farine, in the preparation and collection of which assistance was given by Mr. L. A. Brunton, Agricultural Inspector. The market, however, is not large, and part of the consignments remain unsold in the hands of the produce agency.
From Toco fairly large quantities have been received and purchasing operations are still in progress. Out of the original advance of £150 the cost of the services of an assistant from 21st September to 31st December, amounting to £27 169. 3d., were defrayed, and the balance redeemed on 31st March. Another advance of £75 has since been made.
2. With the co-operation and advice of Mr. H Ganteaume, the Sub-Intendant of Crown Lands, and Messrs. Thornton Warner and C. Flanagin, the Wardens of Tacarigua and Arima respectively, the Government was recommended to rent Crown
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