1 DIDWANA.
2 Manufacture and stocks
3 of salt.
4 Cost of manufacture,
5 Trade ; sales and issues
6 of sult.
7 Sales and issues com-
8 pared,
9 Distribution of salt over
10 areas of consumption.
11 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
12 and to the fact that no exchange compensation was payable
13 during the year. Under contingencies the gmall increase was
14 owing to larger refunds of half duty on salt having been paid
15 to the Bikaner Darbar.
16 19. The following figures show the quantities of salt
17 manufactured, sold, and in stock at Didwdna during the past
18 two years :-—
19 1898-99, 1899-1900.
20 Mds. Mds.
21 Opening balance of stock ... wee aes 5,43,708 4,70,468
22 Quantity of salt produced ... soe 1,99,669 2,38,409
23 Excesses discovered in heaps of salt eleared as 22,148 ee
24 Total wee 7,65,525 7,08,877
25 Quantity of salt sold wee 2,92,582 2,94,283
26 Deficits found in heaps of salt cleared .. ea = 2,475 20,378 ,
27 Total Sis 2,95,057 3,14,661
28 Closing stock balance ose 4,70,468 3,94,216
29 ‘The cost of production and storage of the salt manufactured
30 during the year was 4°51 piesa maund, as compared with
31 4°63 pies during 1898-99. The stock balance at the close of
32 the year was less than that of 1898-99 by 76,252 maunds. It
33 was, however, ample to meet trade requirements, as it repre-
34 sented more than a year’s sales, and large quantities of salt
35 can be made at this source with facility under almost any con-
36 ditions of climate.
37 20. A detail of the sales of salt during the past two years
38 at the source will be found below. As already stated, the
39 sale price throughout the year was nine pies a maund :—
40 1898-99, paca hae Difference.
41 Mds, Mds.
42 Foll duty paid ealt ws 2,52,582 2, or, root 15,319
43 Duty free salt issued to the Jodhpur 40,000 26,382 — 13,618
44 Darbar.
45 Total ee 2, 92,582 294,283 +1,701
46 —
47 There was a slight improvement in the trade in salt which
48 paid full duty, as compared with 1898-99, owing to the reduc-
49 tion in the price. This improvement would perhaps have been
50 _ more marked had it not been that the failure of the monsoon
51 caused a great scarcity of water and fodder on the trade routes.
52 The decrease in the sales of duty free salt to the Jodhpur
53 Darbar was caused by the severe famine which has prevailed
54 in Jodhpur territory.
55 The following figures compare the sales and the actual
56 issues of salt during the past two years :—
57 1898-99. 1899-1900,
58 Mds, Mds.
59 Sales eve eee oes ose ove 2, 92, 542 2,94,288
60 Clearances ‘a eae 2, 92,082 2,094,840
61 21. The aii cleaved from ‘the source was booked to the
62 undermentioned areas :-—
63 1898-99. 1899-00. Difference,
64 Mds. Mda. Mas.
65 The Panjab and North-West Provinces 2,13,783 2,34,391 +20,608
66 Réjputana Se vee 78,299 60,449 =~ 17,850
67 Total ee 2,92,082 2,94,840 +2,758
68 Maunds 93,288 of the bookings to the Panjab and North-
69 West Provinces were consigned in the first instance, nominally
70 for Delhi, to the Kuchaman Road Station on the RAjputana-
71 Malwa Railway. The clearances by railway from the Kucha-
72 man Road Station amounted to maunds 85,253, of which quan-
73 tity maunds 26,866 were actually sent tothe Panjib and
74 ( 2)