Agricultural Board

The Agricultural Board (Junta Agrícola) was created by the decree of 11 March 1911. This legislative act, which settled the so-called Hinton question (to which its preamble makes special reference), established a new sugar regime (regímen sacarino, the legal regime governing sugar and alcohol production). The regime was variously judged and gave rise to conflicting opinions, but it unquestionably contains principles and lays down provisions so useful and wholesome that, if observed, they would contribute greatly to the growth and prosperity of the whole Madeiran archipelago. It must never be forgotten that this decree created the Agricultural Board and the corresponding expropriation of those laboratories of toxic substances known as spirit (aguardente, distilled from sugar cane or wine) factories.

The creation of the Agricultural Board, says the lucid report that precedes the decree, ‘will contribute in the fullest measure to the economic development of Madeira’. And so it would certainly have done, had the work of this body not at times been hampered by a mistaken approach. In an essentially agricultural country, where most of the population lives by planting and tilling the land, it is easy to judge the notable services that a body of a special technical character, with very substantial resources at its disposal, could render to our agriculture if all the provisions of the said decree had been respected and fully carried out. That did not happen, however. Before the calamitous crisis we are now going through (1921), enormous sums were spent without improving the condition of the Madeiran people by putting into effect certain wholesome measures set out in the decree.

The report accompanying the decree of 11 March 1911 refers to the name ‘Island of Spirit’ given to Madeira because of the abundant production of this poison and the excessive use made of it in the archipelago. This name was echoed, and given full currency, by a well-known politician and statesman who, in a public lecture, so ungraciously described the inhabitants of this island as drunkards and alcoholics. He did so after having received here the highest distinctions and the most elevated marks of esteem and regard, which went so far as to confer on him, at a solemn and splendid session of the Funchal Council, the titles and honours of a citizen of Funchal, with the unveiling of his portrait in the great hall of the town hall (Paços do Concelho).

Advocating the lofty moral principle that so preoccupies the governments of states today, that of combating alcoholism vigorously and effectively, the decree enshrines one of the most beneficial measures ever adopted in favour of this archipelago: the expropriation of the spirit factories. This mattered for the good name of our land, and above all it was to accomplish a great social and humanitarian work.

We have already said elsewhere (1921) that a marked decline of the race is becoming noticeable in Madeira. In stature, in physical constitution, in muscular strength, etc., a decline worth recording can be observed. The fact still passes unnoticed by the general public, but not by doctors, and especially not by those who have to select the young men destined for military service.

There is, however, an even more eloquent and persuasive fact: the astonishing percentage of cases of insanity that the Madeiran population is supplying, according to the authoritative testimony of science. The contingent that alcoholism supplies to tuberculosis is also considerable, not to mention the frequent cases of idiocy, epilepsy, convulsions and other more or less proven forms of degeneration. A significant part of the inhabitants of this island who give themselves over to alcoholism already carry in their cells an imperious tendency towards the vice. This tendency finds fertile ground for its development in the ease with which one can buy the terrible poison with which fifty factories flood the market, even as they are poisoning, brutalising, infecting with tuberculosis and driving mad the unwary population of an entire district.

In view of these reasons, set out here only briefly, the advisability and necessity of that great measure, the expropriation of the spirit factories, stand out clearly. Everyone knows, however, that this measure of the greatest moral and social import was never fully adopted. What was judged absolutely indispensable for the black population of Angola, with the prohibition of the manufacture of and trade in spirit, was considered of minor importance for the white inhabitants of this our archipelago of Madeira!

The Agricultural Board was created by Article 26 of the decree of 11 March 1911, which we transcribe verbatim:

Art. 26. An Agricultural Board of Madeira is hereby created, with the special task of managing the fund formed by the tax on the manufacture of spirit (aguardente, distilled from sugar cane or wine). The revenue of this board shall also include the fines imposed for any infringements of the present decree having the force of law, and whatever is laid down in the respective regulations.

Sole paragraph. This fund shall be applied to the economic development of Madeira. A part of it shall be reserved for the expropriation of the spirit factories, for financing the promotion of Madeira wine abroad, for meeting the costs of founding and maintaining an agricultural station that may come to be created on the island, and for promoting the regrafting or transformation of the grape varieties at present cultivated, so that, within a period set by regulation, the only vines in production shall be those that traditionally made up the type known as the vines of Madeira’.

As we have already said, the expropriation of the spirit factories was never even begun (1921). We must now add that the promotion of our wines abroad produced no satisfactory result at all, because of the impractical way in which it was carried out. Nor was the propagation, by grafting, of the varieties that produce traditional Madeira wine undertaken on the desirable scale, even though everyone saw in it the means of restoring to the island one of its oldest and most valuable sources of wealth. The experimental field at Bica da Cana (‘reed spout’) yielded few practical results. Fairness, however, demands that it be said that many useful selected plants came from the nurseries of Louros (‘laurels’) and Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’), especially the latter. The organisation of the services for combating the insects and parasites that attack plants also left nothing to be desired: it was an excellent service to our farmers, sparing them countless losses, above all in fruit trees.

The excessive importance that the Agricultural Board attached to the tourist industry at times made it forget the purposes for which it had specifically been created, and led it to spend large sums on studies and works that it should have undertaken only later.

At Porto Moniz (‘Moniz’s harbour’) and on the Paul da Serra (‘upland marsh’) a great deal of money was spent with no known benefit. The purchase at high prices of several upland commons (montados) and extensive tracts of land in our uplands, although it may be justified by the need to afforest the mountainous zone of the island or to make use of waters now running uselessly into the sea, did not win the approval of the great majority of the inhabitants of Madeira.

The cold store (see that entry), an establishment that could have served the island well, never came into operation, for reasons unknown to us, and the street on which its installations had been built was finally handed over to the Council.

It is worth noting that the decree of 15 May 1912, which approved the Regulations for the implementation of the decree having the force of law of 11 March 1911, laid down new provisions on the purposes for which the Agricultural Board had been created and on its operation, altering the organic and fundamental constitution that a law had assigned and conferred on it. This decree charged the body with afforesting the mountains, establishing an effective rural police and promoting all improvements in roads, sanitation and other matters tending to develop the tourist industry on the island. It was under these provisions that some of the measures we have noted above were carried out.

It should be noted here that the regulations of 15 May 1912 place the obligation to expropriate the spirit distilleries last, and assign only a tenth of the Junta’s annual income to meeting the cost of that expropriation.

Under these regulations the Agricultural Board was composed as follows: the district agronomist or the director of the Agricultural Station, three delegates representing the Municipal Councils, two delegates of the District General Council (Junta Geral), two delegates of the Commercial Association, one delegate of the Viticulture Commission (Comissão de Viticultura), and the forestry officer (regente silvícola) serving the General Council.

Article 21 of the same regulations provided that the following staff should be seconded from the tax inspection corps to supervise the spirit distilleries: one district chief 1st class, one district chief 2nd class, two chief inspectors, thirty inspectors 1st class and ninety inspectors 2nd class.

For the proper and regular operation of the Agricultural Board there are three decrees dated 28 December 1912: the first approved the Internal Regulations of the Agricultural Board, the second the Regulations for the expropriation of the spirit distilleries, and the third the Regulations for the collection of the tax on spirit.

The second set of regulations completely destroys the most important and most advantageous clause of the law that created the Agricultural Board, namely the expropriation of the distilleries. It provides that only three years after the sugar regime of 1911 has come into force, and when it is recognised that sugar-cane cultivation has disappeared in some region of the Madeiran archipelago, will the distilleries be expropriated, and even then only when they request it. And so, with a stroke of the pen in a mere set of regulations, the most useful and beneficial provisions of a law are entirely annulled!

The decree of 1 February 1913 approved the Instructions for the promotion of the products of Madeiran soil, and that of 8 March of the same year approved the Regulations for the rural and forestry service. It was not for lack of regulations that the Agricultural Board failed to fulfil its civilising mission.

The body was installed on 22 August 1912 and held nine further sessions that year. It met 40 times in 1913 and 29 times in 1914. Its revenue for the five financial years from 1910–1911 to 1914–1915 was, in round figures, 25, 64, 155, 149 and 121 contos (1 conto = 1,000,000 réis, from 1911 1,000 escudos) respectively.

By ministerial order (portaria) of 27 February 1915, Dr Fernando Maria Allen Urculu Vieira de Castro, judge in the judicial district (comarca) of Santa Cruz, was appointed to conduct an official inquiry into the acts of the Agricultural Board. He began the work but did not complete it. By ministerial order of 26 August of the same year, Dr Francisco Antunes de Mendonça was instructed to continue the inquiry, and he concluded his investigations on 4 November 1915, the date of his report to the Government.

The inquiry’s work was long and detailed, and its publication filled a hundred pages of the Diário do Governo. The report ends with eight conclusions, the first of which states ‘that all the members of the Agricultural Board, even those who have already left office, acted with honour and dignity’. The other conclusions mention some minor infringements of laws and regulations, which in no way affect the first conclusion.

Article 3 of the law of 31 August 1915 transferred to the Agricultural Board the administration, upkeep and repair of the state levadas (irrigation channel), and provided that the Junta should continue to operate beyond 1918 without time limit. Under Article 5 of the same law, the Junta was empowered to approve its own budget.

On 2 September 1915 a decree was issued permitting the Agricultural Board to contract with the Caixa Geral dos Depósitos a loan of 100:000$, to be applied specifically to the construction of roads and tourist hotels, in accordance with no. 4 of Article 3 of the aforementioned regulations of 15 May 1912. On 11 February 1916 a bill granting autonomy to the Junta and extending its privileges and prerogatives was presented to Parliament, but it was not approved.

The decree of 2 May 1919, which modified the sugar regime, abolished the Agricultural Board, and the decree of 12 June of the same year transferred its staff to the 9th Agricultural Region, under the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito).