Morris Cargill

DR. OMAR DAVIES, in a letter to The Gleaner of Friday, July 2, says that no decision has been taken by the Government to acquire the citrus property at Montpelier. Coming from Dr. Davies, I fully accept that statement. It had been published in the paper that the Agriculture Credit Bank and one other organisation had purchased the property. There is one other matter, too, which puzzles me. The matter of the sale of Montpelier seems to me to be a private affair between the bank and any purchaser that it can find. What is the good Dr. Davies doing in it? Why is he trying to make it a matter which concerns the Government?

I am told that Dr. Davies and Mark McConnell will be meeting tomorrow for further discussions.

My nephew Mark McConnell is pleased about this for many reasons, chiefly because he is a dedicated citrus farmer and wants to increase the production of citrus in Jamaica both for the country's benefit and of course for his own. All the same I wish he wouldn't buy that damn farm in Montpelier and I have told him so. A considerable proportion of its citrus is on the old sour-orange rootstock and within a few years disease will have put paid to all of it. But that is only one problem. My nephew already has considerable trouble with praedial larceny on United Estates in Bog Walk and security there is costing a great deal.

For example when the crop there ended a few weeks ago he thought that he could save considerable expense by temporarily laying off his security. However, this was not possible because the thieves are now digging out the new seedlings in the considerable nursery which had been set up at United Estates to propagate citrus plants on a new rootstock resistant to disease and which would be available eventually to all citrus farmers. The thieves seek to dig out the seedlings and sell them at a very high price.

One can therefore see the immense problems that my nephew will face trying to replant the citrus at Montpelier. If he succeeds in buying the property from NCB I am sure that both he and NCB will be very pleased; especially NCB, what with all its bad loans and the new bad ones which it still seems to be making. FINSAC will probably be delighted too to have some of the weight of NCB taken off its shoulders. I shall not be pleased however. I am very fond of my nephew. I think that 3,000 run-down acres and thievery will be a terrible mental and financial strain upon him.

On strike and sick-outs

People are naturally fully entitled to stop working if they are not being properly paid for it. On the other hand I do not think that people should be paid while they are on strike. If, for instance, in the most unlikely event that I should have some serious differences with The Gleaner I would be entitled to stop writing my column. But I would not be entitled to get paid for not writing it. I have always regarded the sick-out as a kind of rascality. It is an attempt to go on strike but nevertheless to get paid for it.

I am on the whole usually on the side of the police who have a dangerous and unpleasant job to do and often get little thanks for it. However, I think that the recent sick-out by the police was improper and unfortunate. No doubt the criminal classes were delighted and I see from certain reports that some of them took the opportunity to do a bit of happy looting.

One must hope that the Police Federation and the Government will soon be able to overcome their disagreements. If in the future the police feel it necessary to withdraw their services, I hope they will do so honestly and not indulge in the disreputable fiction of the sick-out.

Black crabs and so on

I find it sad that the good old Jamaican black crabs which used to be available in great abundance have now virtually disappeared. This is because of over-kill and lack of conservation. I very much fear that before long the same fate will befall our lobsters and shrimps and if we don't watch out conch will eventually disappear as well.

Indeed we seem busy destroying all our natural resources. We are, bit by bit, destroying our watersheds and our trees by cutting them down to make coal. We should be warned by the Haitian experience. Many years ago Haiti was a green and well-wooded land. Today vast areas are bare and ravaged. Can't we ever learn?

Matalon footnote

On the subject of misfortunes I see that Mechala is teetering on the edge of collapse. This really worries me even more than the usual spate of business failures. I have always regarded the Matalons as exceptionably able and exceptionally rich. If they are now in trouble then all of us are. However, I am intrigued by the latest proposal of Mechala.

It sold bonds in its business to various people. As the profitability of Mechala declined the value of those bonds also declined and it seems they are worth on the market about one-third of what they were worth before. In consequence Mechala is proposing to buy back these bonds at about one-third of the price at which they were originally sold.

This will neatly cancel two-thirds of their original debt. This is a smart piece of financing, entirely legal and entirely within the rules of the games which people like that play.

I have never played according to those rules. The consequences have been, not unexpectedly, that I am relatively poor, Nevertheless I thank the Lord Buddha that I have been spared these activities. I sleep well at nights and do not have to indulge in situations which made me want to go outside and throw up.