204 
29. Action that may profitably be taken by the State under 
the three heads— 
(a) Education. 
(b) Inspection, control, and audit. 
(c) Lending money. 
Where it prescribes accounts or demands returns these 
should be extremely simple. 
The following papers were taken as read: — 
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT IN THE PORTUGUESE COLONIES. 
By HENRIQUE Jost Monrerro DE MENDONCA, 
Vice-Governor of the Overseas National Bank, 
José Dionisio C. DE Sousa E Faro, 
Late Governor of Zambezia, 
AND 
ERNESTO JARDIM DE VILHENA, 
Late. Governor of Lourengo Marques. 
[ ABSTRACT. ] 
This statement has been prepared under the auspices of the 
special Portuguese Commission appointed to superintend the 
preparation of reports and papers for the Third International 
Congress of Tropical Agriculture. It describes the operations 
of three of the chief concerns which have been organized in 
Portugal to facilitate the agricultural development of the 
Portuguese Colonies, viz., the Banco Nacional Ultramarino, 
the Companhia de Mogambique, and the Companhia de 
Zambezia. The Banco Nacional Ultramarino was founded in 
May, 1864, and, as its name implies, its operations are con- 
cerned entirely with the overseas possessions of Portugal. It 
makes advances, repayable by annual instalments, to promote 
irrigation works, the construction of roads, the formation of 
plantations, and other similar operations necessary to agricul- 
tural development, and in addition offers all the usual banking 
facilities to planters and planting companies. Its statutes - 
defining agricultural credit and stating the conditions under 
which advances are made are quoted in some detail in the 
paper, and instances are given of the assistance it has rendered 
in the development of Angola, St. Thomé, Principe and the 
Cape Verde Islands. 
A short account of the facilities offered by the Companhia 
