Page 232 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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Deposit Account interest at the rate of 3 per cent, the difference between 3 per cent and the amount
of interest charged on loans to the public is credited to the department. The average rate of interest
charged by the department during the year was 5.89 per cent.
Rs. 13,70,175 was paid out in loans during the year and Rs. 9.75,526 was outstanding in loans
from 1368.
Disbursements for maintenance, which includes allowances to 512 orphans, amounted to
Rs. 92,141 and Rs. 1,47,769 was paid to wards of the department who attained majority, for marriage
dowries, and for the cost of the department. The cost of maintaining the department was Rs. 28,141
towards which the Government pays an annual subsidy of Rs. 24,000, the department also collects
5 per cent on the interest from loans which amounted to Rs. 18,953.
Much of the department’s work consists of giving loans to the public on the security of
immovable property or gold. Interest is charged according to a fixed scale and loans arc for not less
than one year. The rates of interest are very much lower than the rates charged by local money
lenders among whom the department is not popular.

LAND REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT

(From the report of Khan Saheb Mohomcd Khalil, Superintendent, Land Department.)
Registration and Leases.—There were 773 registrations during the year which consisted
of 446 sales, 199 registrations of titles and 128 gifts. The registrations included 452 houses, 129 plots
of land, 131 gardens, 48 shops and 13 miscellaneous properties. The number of transactions was
greater than during last year and the amount of fees which was collected Rs. 92.778, exceeded the
previous year’s collection by about Rs. 27,000. The total value of the property which was sold
was Rs. 29,01,665 (about £217,500).
The following were some of the more important sales which were registered ; a house on Prior
Road, Rs. 70,000 ; a plot of land on Jufair Road which was sold for Rs. 1-8 per square foot; a house
in the new residential area in Godhabia, Rs. 54,000; an Amara in Manamah west of Messrs. Gray
Mackenzie & Company’s southern compound, Rs. 72,000 ; the date garden Tinar at Abu Zaidan with
a large area of well watered cultivation, Rs. 4,00,000; a date garden on the western outskirts of
Manamah, area about 240,000 square feet, which was sold for Rs. 2,17,350.
Sales of Government land produced Rs. 2,53,493. Altogether 60 plots of land were sold, many
of them being small pieces of ground, of these sales three were open land in the country which were
bought for cultivation. It has now been found that if some of the old filled-in springs are opened up
sufficient water can be obtained to irrigate the surrounding land by using a pump. Four plots were
sold in Muharraq, the remainder were in Manamah, these included 35 sites for building in the new
residential area in Godhabia. Many of these purchases were made by Government officials who
benefit from the plan by which employees with a certain length of service arc allowed a reduction in
the price of land which they buy from the Government.
Rents from Government land amounted to Rs. 23,390; 310 plots of land were leased, 23 of
the leases were for long periods the remainder were short leases terminable by a month’s notice. A
plot of land on Daly Road, about 68,000 square feet, was let on a long lease as a site for another cinema
at a rental of Rs. 2,712 per annum.
Town Planning*—By the end of the year nine houses were either built or under construction
in the Godhabia area and building materials were being collected on many of the sites. The Govern­
ment almost completed the building of the School Hostel, one of the largest and most impressive
buildings in Bahrain, and commenced work on the new Secondary School near the Hostel, on the
south side of this area. This seemed to give an impetus to private building enterprise. It is proposed