PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Protection of Commissioners.
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both everything that may be done by or before the Commissioners may also be done, with equal validity or effect, by or before either of them, and all the powers granted to the Commissioners under this Ordinance or otherwise, may be exercised by either of them.
13. Each Commissioner shall, in respect of anything done by him, or by his direction, in the prosecution of the inquiry to which this Ordinance relates, be entitled to the same benefit and protection as any Judge of the Supreme Court would be entitled to under corresponding circumstances.
Passed in Council, at Port Louis, Island of Mauritius, this second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
(Signed) JNO. ELLIOTT,
Acting Secretary to the Council of Government,
Inclosure 2 in No. 18.
Report on Ordinance No. 11 of 1872, intituled “ An Ordinance to confer certain powers or the Commissioners appointed by Her Majesty the Queen to make enquiry into the condition of the Indian Immigrants in this Colony.”
THIS Ordinance was passed in compliance with the instructions received by the Secretary of State's despatch of 12th February, 1872, announcing the appointment by Her Majesty the Queen of Commissioners charged to inquire into the condition of the Indian Immigrants of Mauritius. His Lordship suggested that the Commissionem should be invested by Our Council of Government with powers necessary to enable them to fulfil their mission by means of an Ordinance similar to the Ordinance No. 16 of 1870, passed in British Guiana under corresponding circumstances.
The Ordinance now reported on may be said to be the exact counterpart of the British Guiana Law, with the exception of a few verbal alterations required to adapt it to Mauritius, and of a clause (Article 5) enabling the Commissioners to visit campe of labourers, &c. The insertion of this section was considered to be expedient as bearing on the matter of inspections of estates, to which matter the attention of the Colonial Legislature and of his Lordship has recently been given.
(Signed) G. ST. JOHN,
Procureur and Advocate-General.
April 5, 1872.
No. 19.
May 8.)
Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received
(No. 127. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,
Mauritius, April 4, 1872.
I HAD the honour duly to receive on the 17th ultimo your Lordship's despatch No. 39 of the 12th February last, informing me of the nomination of Mr. Frere and Mr. Williamson as Commissioners to inquire into the condition of the Indian immi grants in this Colony, and of their probable arrival here in the course of the ensuing month.
2. It thus became necessary for me to consider what course should be pursued with respect to the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch No. 216 of the 16th of December.
3. That despatch having been referred to in your Lordship's No. 16 of the 19th of January, I have already felt compelled, when communicating the latter despatch to the Council of Government, to lay it also before the Board as well as two Memoranda containing the substance of my despatches 185 and 138 therein alluded to; and I had given notice of the resolutions based on your Lordship's recommendations, of which I have the honour to inclose a copy.
4. I had now to decide whether I should relinquish the further prosecution of those resolutions or continue to urge their adoption. On the one hand it might fairly be contended that your Lordship's previous instructions were cancelled by those of January 19th, and that "the policy and legislation of the future" being referred to the consideration of the Commission, no step whatever should be taken to change the policy and legislation actually existing, until after their arrival. On the other hand
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it might be urged that your Lordship's despatch No. 216 of the 16th December con- tained definite instructions with regard to matters of detail on which Her Majesty's Government had already made up their minds, and that, unless those instructions were expressly revoked, those decisions must be held to be unaffected by the subsequent issue of a Commission of Inquiry into the general operation of the Labour Laws.
5. Under these circumstances it appeared to me that, in the absence of positive instructions from your Lordship, I was free to take whichever course appeared to be most likely to be attended with advantage to the public service.
6. The question, therefore, then arose whether it would be most expedient to proceed with the resolutions or to abandon them.
7. There was a good deal to be urged in favour of either line of policy.
8. The convenience of taking no further step until the arrival of the Commission was manifest. By so doing I avoided all responsibility, and could plead that no step had been taken to forestall, even in the slightest degree or with regard to the smallest particular, the subsequent recommendations of the Commission. Nevertheless this course was one not wholly free from objections.
9. Whatever might have been the case had not your Lordship's despatch No. 16 of the 19th January been made public, the result under existing circumstances of complete abstention from all further action would have been that the propositions that it contained would have been exposed undefended and unexplained to hostile criticism, and that the pause previous to the arrival of the Commissioners, unoccupied by any object of immediate interest, would have been devoted to organizing a systematic opposition to all proposals of reform founded on those bases.
10. I had next to consider the advantages and disadvantages of proceeding with the resolutions. It appeared to me on the one hand that good results were not unlikely to be derived from at once proposing the resolutions to the Council.
11. If they commanded general assent the principle of the alterations contem- plated would have been at once accepted by the Legislature, and the future adoption of any recommendations in a similar sense made by the Commission, rendered far easier than would otherwise be the case; whilst even if it were ultimately determined that the resolutions should not be immediately proceeded with, their proposal and discussion would have allowed the reasons in support of your Lordship's proposals to be fully and publicly stated, and their enunciation would not fail in time to produce effect.
12. It seemed to me not improbable that, if objection was taken, as it no doubt would be, to the time at which the resolutions were proposed, there would probably be a greater disposition, on the part of the more moderate, to qualify that opposition as one not to the proposals themselves, but only to the inopportune moment of their introduction, than could otherwise be looked for, and that support would be thus almost unconsciously obtained to the principle of the proposed changes, from those whose opposition must otherwise be encountered.
Moreover, I was convinced that, though startled at first by their enunciation, the suggestions contained in your Lordship's despatch were essentially jectionable, that the planters could not fail, if these proposals were kept steadily so just and unob- before them, to become accustomed to their contents and to recognise their justice,
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18. On the other hand, no doubt, there was the risk that they might fail, and in failing seriously embarrass the future operations of the Commission. Against this risk, however, I thought I could take effectual precautions.
14. I therefore determined to proceed with, at all events, the discussion of the resolutions, resolving only to press those which appeared likely to gain general accep- tance, and to refrain from any subsequent legislation until after the Commissioners have reported, except in the matter of the restoration of return passages, which in the interest, not of the coolies, but of the Colony, appears to me to admit of no delay.
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15. I am happy to be able to inform your Lordship that all my anticipations have been fully realized. The public condemnation, at first loudly pronounced on the posals themselves, gradually sank into a sort of acceptance of them, subject to an objection as to the time of their proposal; whilst the public discussion of this question caused them to be daily more favourably received.
16 When the day for their discussion arrived, I explained to the best of my ability the object and scope of the resolutions, showing that, although it would be absurd to remodel and recast the Labour Law pending the Commissioners' enquiries, there could be no reason for not removing manifest defects of detail, so soon as they were generally perceived and admitted to be so by the Board; that the restoration of a return passage appeared to me of immediate necessity; whilst no harm, but the
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