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of any pest or for the removal of conditions liable to favour the 

 introduction or spread of any pest. Failure to comply with such 

 instructions may be dealt with in two ways : 



The inspecting officer with the permission of the Director of 

 Agriculture may institute criminal proceedings involving a fine on 

 conviction ; he may also enter the land with assistants and carry out 

 the measures required, subsequently recovering their cost by civil suit. 



A fui-ther measure in the case of emergency is that the Director 

 of Agriculture, with the approval of the Resident, may place in 

 quarantine any land or any part of land on which diseased plants 

 have been found, and so long as this land is in quarantine no plant 

 or part of a plant may be removed from it except with the permission 

 of an inspecting officer. The Enactment further contains special 

 clauses relating to locusts and the control of the beetle pests of 

 the coconut palm. 



Staff. 



The foundation of the necessary staff was already in existence 

 when the Enactment came into force as powers as inspecting officers 

 under the Enactment were given to the Assistant Inspectors and 

 Sub-Inspectors of Coconuts who had previously worked under the 

 Inspector of Coconut Plantations, Mr. L. C. Brown. On the 

 retirement of the latter his duties devolved on the Chief Agricultural 

 Inspector to whom control of his former staff was also given. 



Certain additional European and subordinate officers were 

 appointed and all subsequently had to be trained in that part of the 

 work relating to i-ubber for which purpose a certain amount of time 

 was," of course, necessary. 



Inspection Work in the Kampongs. 

 When work under the Enactment first commenced two out- 

 standing mattei's required attention — namely, the beetle pests of 

 coconuts and pink disease of rubber. 



Coconut beetles — Owing to the enforcement of the Coconut Trees 

 Preservation Enactments which were in force previous to the passing 

 of the Agricultural Pests Enactment, the measures necessary for 

 the control of coconut beetles were well known to the majority 

 of the Malay subordinate staff and of the small holders in the 

 kampongs. The continuation of this work was, therefore, a matter 

 of routine, involving no particular difficulties. It had been insisted 

 on for some years and the small owners were accustomed to carry 

 out the simple measures required of them by the inspecting officers ' 

 a certain number of prosecutions were, however, necessary in order 

 to maintain efficiency. 



Owing to the rise in the price of rubber towards the end of 1915 

 and the continued high price during 1916, there was a general 

 tendency in both these years to cut out coconuts interplantad 



