Page 49 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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Summary of receipts and expenditure :—
Receipts. Expenditure.
Rs. a. p. Rs. a. p.
Balance from 1360 34.288 8 11 Maintenance allowances • • 13.149 *3 o
Proceeds from estates 58.772 13 8 Properties bought .. 18.633 8 3
Rents and leases 15,221 8 9 Repairs and upkeep of Proper-
Refund of loans 36.476 9 6 ties 10,668 o 2
Interest on loans 3.748 4 6 Payments to beneficiaries .. 12,430 7 7
Debts recovered 17.723 12 6 Loans advanced . • 54.968 3 3
Balance (Eastern Bank) • • 56.381 9 7
Rs. .. 1,66,231 9 10 Rs. .. 1,66,231 9 10

Receipts. Thirteen new estates were dealt with during the year the most important being
that of the late Shaikh Qasim Al-Mehza, one time Qadi of Bahrain who left property valued at
Rs. 1,30,000. The department took over the administration of the share of minor heirs and
purchased property for them to the value of about Rs. 42,000. Another estate was that of Salim
bin Yusuf Waswasi in which the share of the minors was administered by the department.
The increase in rents and leases is due to the additional number of properties which are being
administered, these now amount to 300 plots and 40 houses inhabited by orphans and minors.
Money is lent by the department after approval by the president and the committee to reliable
persons secured by mortgages of immovable property or gold ornaments at the rate of 10 per cent, per
annum, During the year loans of over Rs. 36,000 were repaid and interest on loans amounted to
about Rs. 4,000.
One of the duties of the department is to recover debts which arc owing to the estates which arc
being administered. Approximately Rs. 18,000 was collected, much of this represented diving
debts and in almost every case payments were obtained without resort to the courts.
Expenditure. Maintenance allowances arc paid to 153 beneficiaries from the income of their
property. During the year 19 new properties were purchased including shops, houses and gardens.
Cash payments represent sums paid to minors on their attaining their majority. Approximately
Rs. 55,000 was paid out in loans at interest and Rs. 34.000 was outstanding in loans from the previous
year.
AGRICULTURE.
Difficulties in obtaining food supplies from abroad especially dates and cereals, directed public
attention towards the possibilities of growing more crops in Bahrain. The Bahrain date crop provides
about a third of the dates which arc consumed yearly in the country, the remainder used to be imported
from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Dates arc one of the staple foods of the people and the inferior kinds are
used for feeding cows and donkeys. Apart from a small patch of corn which is cultivated on the
Rafaa plain, and which is of uncertain success because it depends on rain, no cereals are cultivated
locally.

During the year the Government purchased a quantity of Manitoba wheat, for use as food, from
Canada. Some seed wheat from seed farms in India was ordered for planting. The seed wheat was
late in arriving so the Canadian wheat, which had been tested with satisfactory results by the agricul­
tural department in Cairo, was used for sowing. About 400 acres were sown mostly with Canadian
seed but a little Indian seed was used on land not already sown when the Indian seed eventually
arrived. His Highness Shaikh Suhnan and several members of the ruling family planted large areas
with wheat especially in the island of Om al Naasan and down the south west coast. In all these places
the wheat was watered by irrigation. Numbers of small landowners and villagers bought a few pounds
of seed and grew it in plots in their gardens. The results of this experiment will not be apparent till
the spring.