PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.882
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2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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this (the only serious danger which attended its appointment) is removed by the good sense and good feeling which, instead of testifying jealousy of its powers, or impatience of the necessarily somewhat inquisitorial character of such an inquiry, are ready to welcome the arrival of the Commission and assist its labours.
The Governor, therefore, rejoices to believe that the Commission will be met in the same spirit which dictated its appointment-n spirit not of suspicion or distrust, but of full reliance on the hearty co-operation of this Board, the Planters, and the Public.
The necessary Ordinances for enabling the Commissioners to take evidence on oath, to compel the attendance of witnesses, and to enter on estates, will be laid before the Council after the appointment of the Commission, and a vote taken at the same time for the salary of the Commissioners, and the expenses of the Commission.
By command, (Signed) EDWARD NEWTON,
Colonial Secretary.
Inclosure 2 in No. 29.
Message to the Council of GoverAMENÍ.
ARTHUR GORDON.
THE Members of the Council of Government will not have failed to perceive in the despatch from the Secretary of State which has just been read an allusion to suggestions made by the Imperial Government for the amendment of the existing Immigration Law of the Colony.
One, and that the most important, of these suggestions has already been anticipated by the Board, and his Excellency, believing that others among the proposed changes were not unlikely naturally to recommend themselves to the Council for adoption, has refrained from pressing them on the attention of the Board.
The disclosures lately made with regard to imperfect medical attendance on estates; the Report which must shortly be made by the Police Commission; and the recommendations which his Excellency had received from the Protector of Immigrants: all assured an early consideration of many of the questions touched on, and the Governor was desirous of being enabled to inform the Secretary of State that the Council of Government, when its deliberations had by circumstances been brought to bear upon these questions, had substantially, but spontaneously, arrived at similar conclusions to those of Her Majesty's Government, without any external suggestion or advice. But under the circumstances, he now thinks it right at once to lay the despatch of the Secretary of State before the Board, and to recommend the suggestions it contains to their most favourable consideration. This despatch reviews several of the provisions of the present Immigration Laws, and assigns the reasons which induce Her Majesty's Government to consider their maintenance or retention desirable.
Lord Kimberly states himself in the first place to be clearly of opinion that the Executive Government should have the power to refuse to forward requisitions for immigrants from estates where there has been an excessive rate of mortality, or where serious cases of neglect are proved to have occurred.
His Excellency conceives that there will be no difficulty on the part of the Board in conceding that where habitual ill-treatment has been proved, it would be unjust to allow immigrants to engage themselves in India for that estate, in ignorance of the treatment to which they may not improbably be exposed.
More difficulty may be felt as to the definition of an excessive rate of mortality, but his Excellency conceives that if the provision be applied only to permanently unhealthy localities, it is not unjust. It would, however, be manifestly inequitable to enforce such a provision where the high death rate resulted from accidental causes or from a passing epidemic. The subject, the Governor must add, is one of which the Home Government appear especially anxious, and it was strongly pressed on his Excellency's attention almost"
t'immediately after his assumption of the Government in a despatch which he now lays before the Board.
The Secretary of State proceeds to observe that he sees no reason for limiting the period at which requisitions should be sent in for immigrants, or for altering the system under which immigrants are engaged in India for particular estates. In both those instances the Governor entirely concurs in the opinion of the Secretary of State. His
• Vide Appendix.
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Lordship is also of opinion that no change is required as to the part payment of wages in cations. In this conclusion also his Excellency unhesitatingly agrees; at all events so far as regards the earlier stages of the immigrants' residence in the Colony, and he has himself striven, not without success, to introduce the wise provisions of the Mauritius Law in this respect, into Her Majesty's West Indian Colonies, where these provisions were some years since regarded with strong disfavour. As a matter of personal opinion, he is disposed to believe that the power of freeing himself from this arrangement after a certain period, conceded to the labourer by the Law in Jamaica, is the best mode of treatment of this question, which, however, is not in his eyes one of capital importance, or one in which change is called for.
Lord Kimberly next remarks on the evils which may arise from the deferred payment of wages, and suggests that they should be paid not less often than once a fortnight.
That the regular payment of wages should be enforced under stronger guarantees than at present exist, his Excellency has no doubt. The nature of these guarantees, and the periods to which they should refer must be a matter for the mature considera tion of the Council. His Excellency cannot permit this opportunity to pass without expressing his great satisfaction at the marked and steady improvement which has taken place in the regularity and frequency of payment of wages during the last few
years.
The next proposal of the Secretary of State is that no immigrant should be permitted to enter into a fresh contract of service before the expiration of that under which he was previously engaged, and the delivery into his hands of his certificate of discharge. This is a reform which his Excellency is aware is strongly advocated in Mauritius itself, and which is recommended by many powerful and weighty arguments. The medical attendants on estates should, in Lord Kimberley's opinion, be appointed by and responsible to the Government. Recent disclosures before the Stipendiary Court of Savanne have gone far to confirm that opinion. The particulars of those disclosures his Excellency has directed to be laid before the Board.
To a suggestion thrown out with respect to Sunday labour it is scarcely necessary to advert.
A Report upon the Vagrancy Law is next called for, and his Lordship goes on to point out the necessity for the establishment of a more efficient and regular system for the inspection of estates. This great object the Board has already by its recent legislation secured, and the suggestions of the Imperial Government have been antici- pated by the action of the local Legislature.
The absence from the Mauritius Law of the provision which in the West Indies empowers the Governor to remove immigrants from estates which are unhealthy, or where they have been ill used, is the opinion of Her Majesty's Government "a serious defect" and one which should be remedied. The power which it is thus sought to bestow, and which is intended to meet cases where, in a highly artificial and complex state of society, much mischief may be done without a technical breach of the law, is admittedly arbitrary; but in these days of publicity and criticism there is little fear of ite abuse.
The Governor is also directed to report on the restrictions and exceptional obliga. tions to which old immigrants in Mauritius are subjected, but it is unnecessary for him at present to enter on this branch of the subject, as he hopes shortly to lay before the Board the report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the allegations of the petition prosented to him with respect to those restrictions.
The last point touched on by the Secretary of State is one the consideration of which will, the Governor trusts, be approached in a large-minded and liberal view, Her Majesty's Government are clearly of opinion" that provision for the payment of back passages for immigrants should be at once re-established, and there is one aspect of this question which his Excellency is especially anxious to press on the attention of the Council.
He has for years past perceived that the great danger of too exclusive a dependence on coolie immigration was the prospect that the supply would gradually fail, not from any action of the Indian Government, but from the gradual operation of natural osuses. That this is the case cannot be denied. That it is more difficult to obtain labourers
Nor is
now than formerly, every letter of the agents of the Colony in India tells us, this peculiar to Mauritius. The same story is told by the agents of every Colony. The same slowly growing indisposition to emigrate is reported from all quarters. It is idle to suppose that this state of things will change, unless under the presence of some unlooked for and calamitous change in India itself. The difficulty must be food, and