Miscellaneous, 



388 



[April, 1909. 



The Act was renewed in 1903, and 137 

 owners borrowed £151,806. 



The Act was again renewed in 1904» 

 and 109 owners borrowed £114.915. 



In 1905, the Act was again renewed, but 

 the provisions pledging the revenues of 

 the island for the amount borrowed was 

 omitted, and the loans to planters were 

 made re-payable in four years at the 

 request of the Secretary of State, who 

 in his Despatch on the subject said that, 

 if the Act were to be renewed again, 

 the period of repayment must be further 

 curtailed, viz., from four years to 

 three years, and from three years to two 

 years, and so on, so that all the loans 

 may be repaid at latest in 1909. In 1905, 

 102 owners borrowed £99,807. 



In 1906, the Act was again re- 

 newed for one year, and ninety-eight 

 owners borrowed £112,540. As the 

 time was approaching when the 

 operations of these Acts would cease, 

 and as it was necessary to devise some 

 other scheme by which the £80,000 could 

 be used for the same purpose, a Com- 

 mittee was appointed by the Legislature 

 to inquire into and report on the matter, 

 and to recommend a scheme to take the 

 place of the Plauters-in-Aid Acts when 

 the same should expire in 1907. The 

 Committee carefully considered the 

 question, and by way of report handed 

 in a Bill providing for the establishment 

 of an Agricultural Bank. This Bill was 

 approved of by the Executive Com- 

 mittee and was passed by the Legis- 

 lature, becoming the 'Sugar Industry 

 Agricultural Bank Act, 1907.' In the 

 preamble it is stated, and whereas the 

 system of making advances for sugar 

 cultivation, which has been in force 

 since 1902 under the aforesaid Plant- 

 ations-in-Aid Acts appears to be best 

 calculated to promote the collective and 

 permanent interest of the sugar industry, 

 and it is desired to place that system on 

 a permanent footing by transferring 

 the free grant of £80,000 made to 

 the Barbados Sugar Industry in 1902 

 with accrued interest, and the securities 

 therefor, to a Sugar Industry Agricul- 

 tural Bank to be established for the 

 purpose of continuing such advances to 

 sugar producers. 



The Act provides for the formation of 

 the Bank. 



The Colonial Secretary, one person to 

 be appointed by the Legislative Council, 

 four persons to be appointed by the 

 House of Assembly, and one person to 

 be appointed by the Agricultural Society 

 are made a body politic and corporate 

 under the name of ' The Sugar Industry 

 Agricultural Bank.' These persons are 

 called the members of the Bank. The 

 Colonial Secretary is the Chairman. 



The grant of £80,000 and all accretions 

 of interest which amounted to £16,360 

 5s. 8d., and all securities for amounts 

 still due by plantations are vested 

 absolutely in the Bank. 



All the provisions respecting the 

 making of loans, the expenditure and 

 re-pa5 r ment thereof, are the same as 

 those of the Acts prior to the Act estab- 

 lishing the Bank. 



All unpaid balances of advances against 

 a crop are made re-payable in five annual 

 instalments with interest. 



The Bank takes the business of advanc- 

 ing to planters out of the hands of the 

 Executive Committee, thereby putting 

 an end to all Government connection 

 with this business. Since the establish- 

 ment of the Bank early last year, it 

 has lent £68,443 to ninety-three sugar 

 producers. 



When the Bank took over this business 

 there were £13,980 due for advances 

 made in 1902 against the crop of 1903— a 

 short crop with low | prices ; £263 due for 

 those of 1903 against the crop of 1904, 

 £487 due for those of 1905, and £938 for 

 those of 1905 against the crop of 1906. 

 These balances are being gradually 

 paid off. 



The only loss was in 1903, and that 

 amounted to the insignificant sum of £250. 



Planters were enabled to pass through 

 the severe crisis of 1902, and those who 

 have chosen to do so, have continued to 

 work their plantations by availing them- 

 selves of the opportunities afforded by 

 the Bank for obtaining advances. But for 

 the timely aid rendered by the grant of 

 £80,000 and the passing of the Plant- 

 ations-in-Aid Act of 1902, there would 

 have been a state of things in this island 

 which one dreads to contemplate. 



As will be seen from the short account 

 I have given, this is not an Agricultural 

 Bank in the sense in which institutions 

 in Germany and other parts of the world 

 are known as Agricultural Banks, but it 

 has suited the conditions surrounding 

 the sugar industry in this Island, and I 

 venture to predict a career of usefulness 

 and prosperity. 



Discussion. 



Mr. J. H. Collens (Trinidad) said that 

 this Bank seemed to have been estab- 

 lished upon quite a different principle 

 to the Kaiffeisen banks in Europe, and 

 would seem to be intended to benefit 

 only one class of persons, namely, the 

 sugar planters who had not sufficient 

 funds of their own to bring their crops 

 to maturity. In Trinidad and some of 

 the other islands an Agricultural Bank 

 would have to be of a more general 

 character. He should like to know on 

 what basis they went in determining 



