1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS.
2 DIDWANA.
3 Stock and sale account.
4 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
5 Here also a general decrease in demand appears. This was
6 most marked at Nagor and Merta, both of which places are
7 situate in a part ofthe country which was severely affected by
8 the failure of the monsoon rains of 1896.
9 46. The following statement gives particulars in regard to
10 manufacture and stocks of salt at the Didwana Salt Source during
11 the past four years:—
12 Stock, Sales,
13 ; Ralance at
14 Year. . Balance at Thaeding Sales includ- | close of the
15 beginning of | excesses in Total, Bd sig TERT
16 the year. heaps cleat: cleared.
17 Mads. Mds, Mas, Mads, Mads,
18 1893-94 ... aes 6,00,875 63,475 6,64,350 501,141 1,63,209
19 1894-95 1. tee 1,683,209 4,16,508 5,79,717 8,91,121 1,88,596
20 1895-96 ... See 1,88,596 6,138,820 8,02,416. 3,64,678 4,37,738.
21 Rate paid for manufacture
22 and storage.
23 1896-97 ... oe 4,37,738 4,54,158 8,91,896 277,235 6,14,661
24 Further details of the figures of the past year are these :—
25 Mas.
26 Stock balance on the 1st April 1896 Bie tes wns 4,375,738
27 Add— Fs Mads,
28 Quantity manufactured during 1896-97 = 4,24,880
29 Excess salt found in heaps cleared during 1896-97... 29,778 454,158
30 Total, Stock w. —-- 8, 91,896.
31 Deduct— _—_
32 Sales of salt—
33 Full duty paid =... a - se 2,485,381
34 Delivered free of duty to the Jodhpur Durbar ver 31,853 2,777,235
35 Balance of stock on 31st March 1897 ses 6,14,661
36 The balance of stock in hand at the close of the past’ year
37 was large, sales having been poor and the manufacturing season
38 a favourable one. There is little waste from storage in the
39 dry climate of Didwana, and the salt we have in store forms a
40 valuable reserve upon which we could depend in the event of
41 any unfortunate failure in manufacture at the Sambhar Lake.
42 The sales of 1893-94 show the extent to which the ‘reserve at
43 Didwana was drawn upon when the price of Sambhar salt had
44 to be raised to eight annas a maund,
45 The salt produced at Didwana is manufactured in solar
46 evaporation pans from concentrated brine obtained from wells
47 sunk-in the bed of the source. Of the quantity produced last
48 year, maunds 4,24,380, the greater proportion, maunds 3,35,835,
49 was manufactured between the Ist April and 18th May 1896,
50 and the balance, maunds 88,545, was obtained during Mareh 1897.
51 The season was a favourable one, as indeed it generally is, at
52 Didwana, owing to the source being practicaliy unaffected by
53 any variations in the rainfall.
54 During the past year the combined cost of manufacture
55 and storage amounted to 534 pies a maund compared with
56 5°24 pies during 1895-96. The increase amounts to only one-
57 tenth of a piea maund. The rate for manufacture was the
58 same during both years, 2°49 pies a maund ; but storage cost 2°85
59 pies a maund during the year under report compared with 2°75
60 pies a maund in 1895-96. The reason for this increase was that
61 during the early months of the year higher rates were paid for
62 storage owing to the impoverished circumstances of the manu-
63 facturers in consequence of the failure of the monsoon rains of
64 { 44 )