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qualifications in natural science or agricultural science. I have already submitted to the Goverment suggestions regarding the type of officer which seems necessary. The salary is higher than that paid to the heads of Departments who are without academic or professional qualifications, but is less than that paid to the head of the Medical Department, if the private practice allowed to this officer be taken into consideration, and is only Rs.300 per year more than that of the Crown Prosecutor, who is second in cœmand of the Legal Department.

45. The chief increases in the case of Recurrent Other Charges are under the Divisions of Agriculture, Instruction and Office. The two first of these Divisions have never before been provided for, and are more essential than any other sections of the Department's work. The provision of a sum for rental of a town office will be understood when I mention that the present office is in the Botanic Gardens one mile from town, and the actual measurements are as follows: -

Curator's office Length 8 feet, breadth 5 feet. Library & Clerk Octagonal rom 15 feet diameter. Into these two rooms are piled 3 desks, 2 museum cupboards, 2 library cases, and several chairs, and these two rooms are the only ones in the building.

The

46. Hon-recurrent items amount to Rs.11,000. importation of good livestock is imperative and would be supported by every planter in the Colony. The amount provided for Land Settlement purchase is in the nature of an advance, and a separate memo, has been submitted to Government on the subject: it provides for the beginnings of the establishment of a peasant proprietary on the lines already existing in the Colonies of Antigua, Grenada, Carriacou, St. Lucia, St.Vincent and Mauritius. The third item is also in the nature of an advance: this dolony is one of the few in which the cooperative credit movement has never been essayéd, and it is among those that need it most.

47. It appears to me that the Colony can at its present rate of production, support an expenditure of Rs. 20,000 per year for its Agricultural Department. If this be the case, the deficit under this head would be as follows: -

1st. Year 2nd. Year

3rd. Year

4th. Year

5th. Year

Rs. 8310

8975

9640

10305

10830

48,060

To this would have to be added Rs.11000 Mon-recurrent, but Rs.6000 of this amount represent recoverable advances, and the remaining Rs,5000 is a direct investment which would yield some return from sales of stock bred by the Department. I think it more than probable that the production of the Colony will during the next five years increase to an extent which will allow of the whole deficit being paid from ordinary revenue,

but I prefer to assume that this will not occur. 48. The Colony is at present faced with debts incurred during the past few years, much of it for services which appear far less necessary and productive than the development of agricultural industries. These debts have however to be met, and it is unlikely therefors that funds for the more necessary matters will be forthcoming for a few years. For this reason I recommand that the possibility be earnestly considered of making the Colony a grant-in-aid of 24000 from Imperial funds, the grant-in-aid to be used for agricultural development along the lines I have laid down, to be used in five annual portions of 2 800 each, and to be contingent upon the Colony's providing not less than Rs. 20,000 per annum, during the same years, as its contribution towards the cost of the work.

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49. I make this recommendation with reluctance, as I realise that the burdens of the Mother-country are immense. On the other hand, I believe that, regarded purely as investment, this grant-in-aid would be profitable, and in this connection the Imperial grant-in-aid to the West Indies for precisely similar purposes affords both a precedent and a demonstration. It is hardly too much to say that the West Indian grant-in-aid has paid for itself over and over again

in increased production and trade with the Kother-country and with other parts of the Empire, and has in addition laid the foundations of progressive agricultural work in practically every part of the British tropios. In this connection, the following analysis of the sources and destination of the Seychelles trude in 1920 is of interest:-

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

KIFEL

Reference :-

CO. 882/10

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIE- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON