87 
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 further 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 he 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 rubber for which purpose a certain amount of time 
was, of course, necessary. 
Inspection Woek in the Kampongs. 
When work under the Enactment first commenced two out- 
standing matters 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 i 
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 interplanted 
2 a - \sj 
