216 TEINIDAD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. [XVIIL 4. 



In addition to these activities the Board organises competitions and 

 offers substantial prizes to small proprietors and contractors for cocoa 

 and other cultivation. The competitions arouse keen interest among 

 those eligible to enter for them, and have led to a marked improvement 

 in the methods of cultivation used bj- peasant cultivators. 



OFFICES OF DEPARTMENT AND BOARD. 



8. The office of the Director of Agriculture is in Government 

 Buildings, Port-of- Spain. The Assistant Director has his office at the 

 St. Clair Experimental Station, and the Government Laboratory is 

 situated near the Princes Building. The officers of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture are accommodated at the St. Clair Experimental Station, but the 

 building there is small and inconvenient, and the offices are so over- 

 crowded that their work is thereby seriously hampered. 



ST. AUGUSTINE ESTATE. 



9. The St. Augustine Estate comprising 8,785 acres was purchased 

 by Government in 1900 for ^9,145. The estate was acquu-ed to provide 

 a Central Yaws Hospital, a Rifle Range, a Cemetery and a Government 

 Farm to take the place ofa farm at St. Clair which, being situated in the 

 neighbourhood of the Savannah the most favoured residential quarter of 

 Port-of-Spain, had become of considerable value for building purposes. 



The estate was at first managed by a Manager working under the 

 supervision of the Colonial Secretary. Separate accounts were kept, 

 and the estate was worked as a business concern. 



When the Department of Agriculture was formed in 1908, the 

 supervision of the estate was transferred from the Colonial Secretary to 

 the Director of Agriculture, but no change was made in the methods of 

 management or system of accounts. 



BOARD OF MANAGEMENT. 



10. In 1913 in consequence of certain irregularities which had 

 occurred in connection with the accounts of the estate a Committee was 

 appointed to enquire into the system of management. On their 

 recommendation a new system of book keeping and audit was adopted 

 with a view to establishing an efficient control over the financial 

 transactions of the estate, and a Board of Management, composed of 

 three persons, including the Director of Agriculture, was appointed to 

 manage the estate. 



At the end of 1913 a Select Committee of the Legislative Council 

 was appointed to enquire into the management of the St. Augustine and 

 River Estates. The Committee recommended no change in the system 

 of management by a Board, but in paragraph 25 of their report they 

 stated that : — 



" There does not appear to be any particular advantage in omitting 

 St. Augustine and River Estates from the Annual Estimates 

 and consequently from the accounts of the Colony kept by 

 the Receiver-General, unless it is for the purpose of allowing 

 a complete system of accounts to be kept, in which case the 

 estates would pay the land, house and other taxes to the 

 Government and receive Payment therefrom for such parts of 

 either of the estates, e.g. the Government Farm and the Yaws 

 Hospital, as are occupied by Government Departments." 



