n 42a 111 addition to these sums an amount of 77,000 was tivailable from the unexpended balances of former credits.

JTor 1910 the follo\Ying expenditure has been sanctioned :— ;£E. (a.) Ordinary budget .. .. .. .. .. 5*1,000 {b.) Special credit for new buildings ., .. .. .. .. 2-5,000 Total .. .. .. .. 79,000 The unexpended balances 01 former credits amounted to .£E. 38,000 at the end of 1909, but these will be utilized by the Department during the year to complete approved schemes already in hand.

The total expenditure on Port Soudan up to the end of 1909 has been approximately £E. 894,000. Tlie quays were completed and opened to the public in the early part of last year, and the steam slipway in the dockyard is almost ready for use. Manual labour cun now be obtained at short notice, but the standard of skilled labour is low. The administrative services of the port and the general upkeep and maintenance of the new buildings and works, hitherto under the control of the Public Wurks Department, have now been handed over to the various departments to which they r.re to be in future attached.

VI. IRRIGATION.

18. Irrigation.

The past year has seen the actual commencement of the dredging operations, recommended as a result of the studies begun in 1904, for the improvement of the channel of the Nile in its passag-e through the swamp region of the southern Soudain the object being to effect some diminution in the large volume of water lost by the river in that region. The proposals for the purchase of a small dredging fleet, necessarily of a more or less experimental character, at an estimated cost of £E. 1.50,000, were approved in 1.906, and the greater part of the plant is now actually on the Nile. The cost of working it is roughly estimated at £E. 40,000 a year. The fleet will, in the first instance, be thoroughly tested in undertaking small and experimental operations, and the dredging and embanking of the Bahr-el-Zaraf seem indicated as the work which can be most usefully taken in hand at the present time.

In the Dongola province the Soudan Government has undertaken the opening up of the old flood canals and the creation of one or two small basin systems. A beginning has also been made in connection with a larger scheme for the iiTigation of the Kerma plain, which contains about 80,000 feddans of cultivable land. T'he canals and banks constructed this year have cost about 4E. 12,000, and are calculated to bring under cultivation some 30,000 feddans.

The irrigation works on the river Gash at Kassala have done well, despite the fact that this year’s flood was both small and intermittent compared with those of recent years. Under present conditions, it is not, however, considered worth while to do much more there for the present. The expense and difficulty of transport preclude large agricultural developments. Later on, wdien the people havo become more fainiliar with the newly introduced methods of irrigation, it may be advisable gradually to extend the scope of the present works.

The detailed surveys in connection with the alignment of the Gezira canal have been continued, and this important project is by degrees assuming a definite form. It is ])roposed to continue these studies until a complete scheme is produced, when all the factors of the problem, technical, financial, and economic, can be considered as a whole by the light of the information thus available.

VII. ADMINISTRATION.

19. Prisons.

There has again been a considerable increase in admissions for serious offences during the past year, due probably to better work on the part of the police rather than House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.