PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TTCO.882
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
invcreases
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considered a comparison between the Labour Laws of the West Indies and those of Mauritius, on which I am now engaged, and which I shall have the honour of trans- mitting by the next packet, I shall no doubt be informed whether Her Majesty's Government considers it desirable that any other modification, in addition to that now suggested, should be effected in the system in force here; and if, as is not improbable, such should be the case, it would, I think, be preferable to propose these measures as a whole rather than piecemeal.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
No. 5.
ARTHUR GORDON,
Governor the Hon. Sir A. Gordon to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received August 26.) (No. 113.) My Lord,
Mauritius, July 27, 1871.
I HAVE had the honour to 'receive your Lordship's Circular despatch of the 24th May, inquiring whether in my opinion there is in this Colony, "less indisposition" than formerly on the part of the Creole women to form connections with Indian and Chinese Immigrants.
2. Before answering the question put by your Lordship, I may premise that so far as my experience in the West Indies enables me to judge, I should say that the indisposition to form such connections existed quite as decidedly on the part of Indian men as on that of Creole women.
3. The pride of race in the Indian is ordinarily very strong: he looks on the negro as his inferior decidedly, as the most narrow-minded white man could do, and is generally very averse to any permanent connection with a Creole.
4. This disinclination is of course, heightened by the consideration that the great majority of Indian immigrants contemplate a return at some period to their native country.
5. The Chinese, who are thorough citizens of the world, have no such prejudices of race, no such eager desire for the most part to return to the homes they have abandoned; they rapidly assume the manners, dress, and (in name at least) the religion of the country they inhabit, and a reference to my despatches from Trinidad in 1867 or 1868 will show how frequently they intermarried with Creole women in that Colony.
6. Here, neither Indians, nor Chinese have return passages granted to them, but the same rule holds good, that the connections of Creole women with Chinese are more numerous than those with Indians. I cannot say that the number of marriages between Creoles and any class of immigrants increased, and indeed the Creole popula tion is so comparatively small, that even if there were the strongest disposition to effect such unions they would not be of frequent occurrence.
7. The Protector of Immigrants informs me that, in his opinion, "such alliances (i.e. between Indians and Creoles), arc infrequent and not likely to extend so much as to form a ground for proposing any reduction in the proportion of women to men in Indian Immigration."
8. The Acting Officer of Civil Status or Registrar-General, Dr. Edwards, a gentleman whose opinion is entitled to the utmost consideration, reports that, "in the first place, there is no redundant female Creole population; and, in the second, there is no sympathy whatever between the two races. On the contrary there is," in his judgment, "a positive antipathy quite sufficient to bar such connection on anything like an extended scale. It is different,” he adds, "with the Chinese, amongst whom marriages with Creole women are not infrequent."
9. On both these points the opinion of Dr. Edwards entirely coincides with the conclusion which I was led to form from the observations made by me in Trinidad.
Under these circumstances, I feel compelled to give a negative reply to your Lordship's query.
I have, &c.
(Signed) ARTHUR GORDON.
15
No. 6.
Governor the Hon. Sir A Gordon to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received August 26.) (No. 118.) My Lord,
Mauritius, July 28, 1871. THE extraordinary frequency of suicide among the Indian immigrants in this Colony, and especially among one class of them (for the vast majority occur among the indentured labourers on estates), had attracted my very serious attention before I had the honour to receive your Lordship's despatch, requesting that the records of the Coroner's inquests on suicides for the last five years should be examined, with a view to ascertaining the causes of these suicides, and especially how far they were due to
jealousy or family discord.”
E
2. In the pressure of business, it had no doubt escaped your Lordship's recollection that, in this Island, administered as it is under a French system of law, there are neither Coroners nor inquests. In cases of suspicion, inquiries are, or ought to be, made by the police; and I have obtained from that department all the information in my power on this subject-information, which I regret to say is, after all, but mengre.
3. I some time ago called for a Report from the acting Inspector-General of Police of all the suicides which had taken place during the last ten years, and I at the same time called for a similar Report from the acting officer of the Civil Status or Registrar-General.
4. Your Lordship will perceive that these returns, of which I have the honour to inclose a copy made out in parallel columns, are hopelessly inconsistent, not only in the gross result, but in almost every detail.
5. I then called for a more precise return from each of these departments of the suicides committed on every estate in the island during the five years ending 31st of December, 1870, and for the first six months of the present year.
6. This return presents similar and even more glaring discrepancies, and, what is even more curious, the return from the Civil Status Office does not correspond with the figures given by that Office for the same five years when preparing the previous return for the ten years 1861-70, the numbers standing as follows for that period:-
Fort Louis Pamplemousses
Rivière du Rempart Flacq
Grand Port
Black River
Moka
Savanne
Plaines Wilhems
Total
Or with the addition of deaths, of which the causes were not reported, but supposed to be suicidal
Total
·
The Police return for the same time is 350!
Original Return. Present Return.
49
49
52
29
29
38
37
49
42
33
23
15
18
12
28
32
42
33
320
290
17
307
7. I shall of course inquire much more closely into these various discrepancies, which, whatever their cause, deprive both returns of much of their value.
8. Whichever set, however, we regard as the most trustworthy, the number of suicides is very large indeed, and I fear we must consider the heavier return to be the truer one, for while many suicides may well escape the notice of the police, or not be reported to the Civil Status, it is almost impossible that deaths should be registered as suicides if not really due to that cause.
9. I inclose the return which the Police authorities have furnished me of the probable causes of such suicides as were inquired into by them.
10. Out of the 642 suicides reported to the Police in the ten years ending 31st of Decembor, 1870, only 83 are attributed to jealousy, 20 to revenge, 28 to poverty, 180 to sickness, 82 to temporary insanity, 17 to ill-treatment, and 217 to unknown
causes.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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