1 ‘REVIEW BY SECTIONS.
2 DIDWANA.
3 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
4 are
5 At the beginning of the year the stock in hand was maunds
6 1,63,209 ; extraction of new salt, and excesses in heaps cleared
7 during the year, added to stock maunds 4,16,508; the sales
8 including deficits on clearances camé to maunds 3,91,121; and
9 the closing balance of the year was maunds 1,88,596. The year
10 was not a favorable one for salt manufacture at Didwana. The
11 previous season having been one of scanty rainfall in this locali-
12 . ty, and the deswals (as the manufacturers of salt are here called)
13 Results of clearances of
14 heap».
15 PACHBADRA.
16 Receipts, charges and net
17 revenne.
18 being in straitened circumstances, double the ordinary advances
19 (all were duly recovered) were made to them on the 5th of De-
20 ceinber 1894 in order to enable them to clean out their pans and
21 start work early. Owing however to unfavorable weather, from
22 that date to the 28th of the month the cleaning out of the pans
23 could not be taken in hand, and afterwards more or Jess heavy
24 rain fell on the 31st December 1894 and on the 7th, 8th, 9th,
25 10th, 20th, 21st and 30th January;.on the 1st and 10th of
26 February, and on the 2nd, 8th and 10th of March, so that no
27 salt was extracted and estimated until the 20th of March, but
28 from ‘that date until the end of the year maunds 42,657 of good
29 salt were extracted and stored. Previous to the rains, that is,
30 from the 1st April to the 9th June 1894, maunds 3,08,980 had
31 been produced ; thus the total manufacture for the year amount-
32 ed to maunds 3,51,637. Nearly as much salt was sold and
33 cleared, reckoning also excesses discovered, as was manufactured,
34 and the balance in hand at the close of the year under report
35 was not large. It has however. been increased by the end of
36 June 1895 to 5,42,000 maunds, which is practically more than
37 we need to have in store at this salt source,
38 During the past year the usual rates were paid for manu-
39 facture, that is, 2,24 and 3 pies per maund according to quality,
40 but the storage rates for the quantity, maunds 42,657, of salt
41 stored in March 1895, were increased by one pie per maund,
42 owing to the impoverished circumstances of the Deswals, Be-
43 fore the rains of 1894 the ordinary rates only had been paid.
44 The average cost of manufacture and storage combined was 1°98
45 pies per maund less than in 1893-94 (7°53 pies in 1893-94 and
46 5°55 pies in 1894-95). A lower rate was booked for extraction
47 viz, 4°98 pies in 1893-94 and 3°09 pies in 1894-95, owing (1) to,
48 the incidence of the advances made to the deswals in 1893-94
49 on a very much smaller quantity of salt, and (2) to the larger
50 proportion of first class salt paid for at the highest rate, wz.,
51 three pies per maund, in 1893-94. The difference between the
52 average storage rates is trifling and need not be commented
53 on,
54 Five heaps of salt were cleared by sale within the year, and
55 in all of them excesses were found, the aggregate of the excesses
56 being maunds 64,871, which is equal to 16°58 per cent. on the
57 salt issued. This is too high a percentage to be satisfactory
58 and orders have been issued requiring the estimating officers to
59 be more careful. As excesses and deficits are adjusted on the
60 clearance of heaps between the department and the deswals,
61 this is the reason, probably, why the estimation was not so exact
62 as is desirable. In these instances the deswals have received
63 the price of the excesses,
64 52. The gross realizations, the fixed and contingent charges,’
65 and the net revenue of the Pachbadra Division, including the
66 ( #0 )