§ 35. Viscount SANDONasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any report has been received from the resident in Rodriguez as to agricultural development possibilities there; and whether this matter will be investigated with a view to putting the island on a revenue-producing basis?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREI have received no special report on the possibilities of agricultural development in Rodriguez, but a section of the annual report of the Mauritius Department of Agriculture is regularly devoted to the progress of agriculture on that island. An officer of the Mauritius Department of Agriculture has since 1921 been posted to Rodriguez with a view to the development of the island's resources in agricultural produce and farming, and experiments are being carried out particularly with regard to the growth of tobacco, maize and cotton.
§ Viscount SANDONWill the Under-Secretary ask the Government of Mauritius to forward this report, which I understand has been made to them?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREI will send the hon. Member what I have. It is a section embodied in the Report of the Mauritius Department of Agriculture dealing with it.