No. 350, REVENUE, 23RD JULY 1896.27
much as I sympathise with the objects of the Association, I must say that the grievances
complained of by it are chiefly matters of the past. I fail to see how the proceedings of a single
shikari, spread over three such large areas, can be very destructive to game. And I cannot
understand how, in the face of the existing evidence, both oral and ocular, it can be contended
that game in the neighbourhood of the Cinchona plantations has been virtually exterminated.
This is not the opinion of a large cinchona and tea planter in the neighbourhood who assured
me the other day that sambur and jungle sheep literally swarm at a distance of 3½ miles from
Nedivattam. As the subject, however, appears to have elicited some warmth of feeling, I would
suggest that the Wood plantation, where game most abound and where there are only 27 acres
of cinchona, should be abandoned ; the cinchona. being first uprooted and its hark taken to the
factory. I cannot recommend the dismissal of the shikari, but I would restrict him (as at
p r e s e n t ) t o t h e a c t u a l a r e a o f t h e G o v e r n m e n t e s t a t e s .
10.
Accounts,— There annually appears in the. report of the Director a statement showing
the capital and revenue accounts of the plantations from the commencement up to the date of
the report. In this return the disbursements of each year are given in one column with
i n t e r e s t a t 4 ½ p e r c e n t . T h e r e a r e a l s o c o l u mn s i n wh i c h t h e s u r p l u s a n d d e f i c i t e a c h y e a r a r e
stated. Up to the end of last year the total deficit is stated to amount to Rs. 6,41,288-3-6.
If the yearly accounts were to be stated like those of a joint stock company this deficit would
stand as the capital or as a liability of the company. I cannot. however, understand. how the
•
large deficit just named is arrived at. In Captain Campbell Walker's report (p. 16) on the
plantation, he gives Rs. 13,04,369 as the Accountant-General's calculation of the total cost of
the estates, plus annual interest TO the end of' the official year 1875-76. During the seven
succeeding years such large quantities
of bark were sold in England that the surplus of receipts
over expenditure during these years amounted in round numbers to Rs. 18,39,000 ; in other
words the receipts of the plantations at the end of the year 1882-83 had exceeded the total
expenditure on them from the beginning. plus interest, by the sum of Rs. 5.34,640. The actual
expenditure up to the latter date should, therefore, surely have been considered as wiped out,
and. the plantations should have been credited with the difference, i.e ., with the sum of
Rs. .5,34.640. From 1862-83 until the present time, the plantation has been worked at an
unusual loss. The net receipts for these twelve years were Rs. 6,85,172 and the net expendi-
ture was (exclusive of interest) Rs. 9 .66,816. the surplus prior to 1883-84 be added to the
receipts since that date, the amount comes to more than 12 lakhs of rupees, as against less than
10 lakhs of expenditure. It 2 lakhs be allowed for interest (a sum which surely must be
Considered as ample) the capital cost of the estates has really been extinguished, and no annual
charge for interest is really admissible. It is utterly disheartening for any man to have to
work under a financial disability (evena l t h o u g h i t b e o n l y i m a g i n a r y ) s u c h a s t h e D i r e c t o r o f
these plantations has hitherto done. I venture therefore to recommend that, from 1 st April
1895, a new departare should be taken in the accounts; that the charge for interest should
disappear, and that a stock account, debit and credit cash account and balance sheet should be
annually given. In this way the exact results of the year's working would be shown within
the compass of a single page.
11.
The resources of the plantation.— I need
hardly remind you that since the suspension
during the official Year 1882-84 of the practice of selling the bark produced on the estates,
these plantations have not been worked up to their full producing. power. They have in fact
been very lightly cropped and, even since the manufacture of quinine was begun, the demand
for that drug has never yet been equal to anything like the producing power of the plantation,
The
natural increment of the bark of many trees therefore remains on the trees as an undrawn
dividend. The result this 1ight c ropping and Of the judicious
method of cultivation, and of
collecting the bark which have been followed during the past 12 years, is that the plantations
are now in a much better condition than they were when I went over them in 1878. An
examination of some of the figures given in the Director ' s report for the official year which
ended on :31st March last gives an idea of. the present actual condition of the plantation. I find
that, during the year 1894-95, 6,720 crown bark trees were coppiced on Dodabetta and the
yield ofd r y -
h a r k
: f r o m t h e w w a s 5 1 . 5 2 2
l b . O n X e d i v a t t a m 4 , 7 1 3 t r e e s w e r e c o p p i c e d
with a yield of 17.081lb. ; and. on Hooker estate. the 6,949 trees which were coppiced yielded
27,008 lb. of dry bark. This is at the average rate of about 51/5th lb. per tree. The Director
assures me that the trees for coppicing were not selected because of their size. On the contrary,
they were selected as trees which had, from repeated stripping and mossing, begun to show
signs of weak health, and they were coppiced in order that they might have an opportunity of
springing afresh from their cutstumps. In the language of French forestry the trees were
coppiced as part of a coup de regeneration . Trees to the number of 18,382, cut as a measure of
arboricultural improvement (and which, owing to their sickly state, yielded bark of poor quality
from which not more than 3 per cent. of quinine may be expected) thus yielded 95,611 lb. of
dry crown bark. After deducting these trees, there remained of crown barks on the Govern
ment. plantations (according to the returns) more than a million trees, sonic in excellent and the
others for the most part in fair health. If the proportion of the bark on the trees that remain
be in proportion to that of those which were coppiced last year, the crown bark trees on the