Dec. 1894.] 



PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 



243 



After duly considering the matter the Indian Government 

 state that although they would be glad to see eff )rts made by 

 private enteiprise to provide cheap and convenient means of 

 cleaning wheat, they would not feel justified in fostering trade 

 in wheat any more than any other co iimercial ventures, by 

 granting subsidies in support of private action. 



As regards the grading of wheat, the system proposed re- 

 quired that grain received at t^.e co npany's premises should be 

 tested and divided into grades ; that all grain of the same 

 grade should be stored in the same warehouse ; that the owner 

 should be furnished with a certificate of the grading, which he 

 might use as a negotiable instrument in place of transferring 

 the actual wheat. Finally, the promoters of the scheme anti- 

 cipated that, if proper precautions were taken, the certificates 

 might be accepted by the home market, and that the uncertainty 

 entailed by the present system be avoided. 



The suggested scheme could not eliminate difficulties involved 

 by adulteration or by damage from weevil en route to England ; 

 but, even if these were surmounted, it is feared that it would be 

 found far less easy to work than in America or Russia, owing 

 to the smaller scale of individual cultivation, the ultra conserva- 

 tive habits of both cultivators and middlemen, and the numerous 

 varieties of wheat requiring classification. The Government 

 could not consent either to allow their officers to countersign 

 certificates made out by persons other than their own servants, 

 or to provide official agency for the purpose of classifying grain. 

 They are disposed to think that, if the scheme is to be worked 

 at all, measures for the grading of wheat must be arranged by a 

 combination of the leading merchants at the seaports. 



It is doubtful, however, whether the mercantile classes in 

 India would appreciate the advantages of public warehousing. 

 Their instincts are apparently in favour of more confidential 

 methods of dealing; their stocks are not, as a rule, collected at 

 commercial centres, and their existing system of open air or pit 

 storage is less expensive than, an«l, in the opinion of many, as 

 effectual as, any public storage cn advanced lines could be. 



The Indian Government would therefore prefer to w^dt until 

 the expansion of local and bonded warehouses under the charge 

 of municipal and other bodies has familiarised the public with 

 the warehouse system. 



On the whole, therefore, the proposal that the State should 

 subsidise a company for the cleaning, grading, and storing of 

 wheat, or for any of these purposes, does not commend itself to the 

 Government of India. They are unwilling to do anything that 

 would stand in the way of the introduction either of the 

 American elevator system, or of any modified form of it ; but 

 they hold, with most of the commercial associations consulted, 

 that the promotion of such a system must be left to private 

 enterprise, and that it cannot be introduced or subsidised by the 

 State. 



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