1919.] RE-ORGANIZATION— DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. 223 



MANAGEMENT OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND RIVER ESTATES. 



30. The management of the St. Augustine and River Estates by 

 a Board is both ctmibrous and dilatory. Decisions on matters of 

 urgency have often either to be deferred until a meeting of the Com- 

 mittee can be convened or to be taken by the Chairman or by a 

 member of the Committee in anticipation of the sanction of the 

 Committee. It is desirable on the other hand that the planting 

 community should be closely associated with the management of the 

 estates, and this object could conveniently be attained if the functions 

 of the Board of Management were advisory and consultative rather than 

 executive and administrative. 



I accordingly propose that the Board of Management as it now exists 

 should be abolished, and that the St. Augustine and River Estates 

 should be placed under the Director of Agriculture assisted by an 

 Advisory Committee drawn from among the members of the Board of 

 Agriculture. 



ACCOUNTS OF ESTATES. 



31. The arrangement under which the River and St. Augustine 

 Estates are treated as separate business concerns seems to have little 

 to commend it either from an administrative or an accounting point of 

 view. The separation of the accounts of the estates from those of the 

 Colony tends to weaken the control of Government and of the Legislative 

 Council over expenditure. The argument used in favour of the present 

 arrangement that a cocoa estate cannot be worked efficiently on an 

 annual estimate like a Government Department is fallacious. In order 

 to ensure economical working it is essential that the estimates of the 

 annual revenue and expenditure on each branch of the work of the 

 estate should be made, and in point of fact such estimates have been 

 drawn up for both estates for the last six years, and all payments are 

 made in same way as for departmental accounts. 



As mentioned in paragraph 10 above the Coimnittee of the Legislative 

 Council appointed in 1913 to enquire into the management of the 

 St. Augustine and River Estates expressed the opinion that there was no 

 particular advantage in omitting the St. Augustine and River Estates 

 from the annual estimates and consequently annual accounts of the 

 Colony. I accordingly propose that the accounts of the Estates shall 

 be included in the accounts of the Colony, annual estimates of the 

 revenue and expenditure being framed in accordance with financial 

 instructions. 



DISPOSAL OF SURPLUS LANDS. 



32. I have recently issued instructions that all the surplus lands of 

 the St. Augustine Estate which are not required for public purposes 

 should be disposed of, and I propose that the portions of the estate now 

 leased to Government Departments should be transferred to the charge 

 of the Department that uses them and the payment of rent discontinued. 

 It will be remembered that 1,000 acres have recently been leased to 

 Messrs. Nel<on and Sons, and I have asked for your authority to utilise 

 the Mount Hope Estate as a site for a new prison, but there remain 



