Coll 28/41 ‘Persia. Trade Reports. Kerman 1924–’ [‎80r] (159/313)

7?
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The rate of taxes remained the same as in the
previous year, i.e., Rial 0-50 per miskal (about one-
sixth of an ounce) and there was, therefore, very
little smuggling indulged in.
The price of crude (untaxed) opium averaged about
Rials 200 per Man (lbs. 6,875) and there were no
exports during the year.
Petitions were forwarded to Tehran during the year
ri^umending the levying of taxes on acreage. If
th proposal is put into effect, the income to the
Government will greatly increase and, at the same
time, there will be considerable saving of expense
so far as the excise establishment is concerned.
7. Industry.
(a) State of Industry generally .—As pointed out in
previous reports, carpet-weaving is the only industry
in this province.
The total amount of exports in Kerman carpets
and tribal rugs during the period under report was
under ten million Rials as compared with Rials
12,658,000 in the previous year.
As this industry is the chief source of income in
this province, the slump affects all classes of the
inhabitants.
Prices of dyes and weaving materials keep going
up and only a few weavers can, therefore, manufac
ture carpets at the prevailing prices. The fall in
the carpet industry has been fully dealt with under
Trade (a) above.
(b) New industries .—No new industries were
started in Kerman during the year.
Projects have been discussed by the local authori
ties from time to time to revive the old industries of
Kerman, such as the weaving of various kinds of
woollen fabrics, of which very little is at present
made.
The rearing of silk worms is gradually increasing
in this province and more mulberry trees are being
planted for the purpose.
(c) Lapse of old industries. —Nil.
(d) Electricity .—The electric light plant imported
in 1931 by Sheikh Abul Qasim Harandi, the Russian
Sales Agent, in Kerman, started functioning in
September last. Only the main streets and bazaars,
offices of certain Government departments and houses
of notable inhabitants have so far been supplied
with lights. The plant is said to be running still at
a loss. The proprietor is, however, receiving all
possible assistance and encouragement from the
local authorities. The subscription paid by the
Kerman Municipality for their monthly consump
tion amounts to Rials 10,000. The rate charged is
Rials 4 per volt.
(e) Demand for foreign machinery.—The project
of importing a cotton spinning mill plant for erection
at Rafsinjan has fallen through awing to various
difficulties.
In the month of May it was for the first discovered
that Rafsinjan cotton would not yield 20-count
yarn in such a dry climate and at such a high alti
tude. Three of the directors proceeded to Tehran
in June to discuss the question in detail with the
Minister of Court, but returned in July without
having come to a satisfactory decision.
The matter was shelved in August owing to the
inability of the share-holders to subscribe more
funds on account of losses sustained by them as the
result of the previous month’s floods.
Mr. Dinshaw N. Pavri, a Mill Manager of Bombay,
who had visited Meshed with the idea of studying
the possibility of erecting a spinning mill in that
city, arrived in Kerman at the end of September to
study the same problem in Kerman. After returning
to India and discussing the matter with his princi
pals in Bombay, he wrote to one of the directors in
Kerman in the month of November suggesting that
the share-holders should first assure themselves of
the coal and water supplies in this province before
the Parsis in Bombay could interest themselves in
the enterprise.
In the month of January the Governor-General
suggested to Tehran that, in view of the scarcity of
money and the share-holders’ inability to raise
further funds, the Kerman Spinning mill concern
should either be amalgamated with that of Yezd,
or taken over by the Syndicate in Tehran, and,
failing these two alternatives, the one-third of the
capital deposited by the share-holders at the Persian
National Bank should be returned to them.
Finally orders were received from Tehran, in the
month of February, to re-imburse the amount to
the share-holders.
The Governor-General, however, induced the share
holders to agree to the money being utilised for the
formation of a different company, with a capital
of Rials 1,000,000 whose aim it would be to promote
the weaving industries of Kerman and, among
other things, import a wool-carding machine for the
purpose.
One of the chief carpet weavers in Kerman
imported a wool-carding machine from Germany in
the early part of the year. The machine is smaller
than that owned by the firm of Oriental Carpet
Manufacturers Limited, but is said to be of a more
up-to-date type.
(/) Development of Mines, if any .—Further reports
have been prepared by the local authorities and sent
to Tehran, from time to time, on the copper and coal
mines in the province, but so far without any definite
result,
8. Communications and Transport.
(a) State of communications generally .—Kerman
is connected by motor road with (a) Yezd-Isfahan-
Tehran, (b) Sirjan-Bandar Abbas and (c) Bam-
Zahidan. The direct motor road to Shiraz, via
Sirjan and Niriz, is now seldom used and is usually