PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
CO.882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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The Governor will therefore move Resolutions at the next meeting of the Board having for their object the affirmation in general terms of the propositions contained in Lord Kimberley's despatch.
They will simply enunciate principles on which the Board can easily decide, whilst the settlement of details, even those of most importance, may be left open to discussion and settlement, when the Ordinance which, if the Resolutions are passed, will be founded upon them, is brought under consideration.
His Excellency has also directed two Memoranda, the one containing the com- parison between the laws of the West Indies and Mauritius, and the other his views with respect to changes in law referred to in Lord Kimberley's dospatch, to be laid before the Board.
By command, (Signed)
EDWARD NEWTON, Colonial Secretary.
Inclosure 3 in No. 29.
The Honourable the Protector of Immigrants supported the Resolutions, giving his motives for doing so.
The Honourable Mr. Antelme then moved that the sitting of the Board be suspended for a time, in order to enable Honourable Members to confer upon the eloquent, elaborate, and comprehensive Address of his Excellency the Governor.
The Honourable Mr. Naz seconded this motion, and his Excellency said be had no objection to suspend the sitting for the purpose mentioned, especially as the Standing Rules permitted this course to be adopted.
His Excellency then left the Council Chamber, and strangers were ordered to withdraw.
After an interval of somewhat more than an hour, his Excellency resumed the chair, and strangers were readmitted.
His Excellency then put the question "that the Board go into Committee," which was agreed to nem. com.
In Committee the following Resolution was read by the Secretary of Council:- "1. That after a date to be hereafter fixed, all future immigrants from India be entitled to claim a return passage to India free of expense, after the expiration of their industrial residence, and after an additional residence in the Colony of such number of years as may be fixed by the Board."
The Honourable Mr. Stein moved that the consideration of the question be post- poned in order to give time to the Board to make itself acquainted with the circum- stance which led to the withdrawal of the privilege of free return-passages to old immigrants, to which end he asked that all the papers connected with the matter be placed at the disposal of Honourable Members.
The Honourable the Procureur-General expressed his hope that his Excellency would accede to the proposition of his honourable friend, although it was his decided opinion, for the reasons he advanced, that the Resolution, and the other Resolutions to be proposed by the Governor, were wise and expedient.
His Excellency having stated that if Honourable Members required more time to examine the Papers which for a long time had been before them, he could not have the slightest objection to defer the consideration of the Resolution.
The following proposed Resolution was then read :—
"2. That the non-fulfilment of the provisions contained in contracts of service for the regular payment of wages to immigrants on estates at fixed periods should entitle such immigrants to claim the cancellation of such contracts at an earlier period than at present by law allowed.”
The Honourable Mr. Antelme moved the following Amendment :-
"That the delay of four months which at present absolutely entitles an immigrant to the cancellation of his contract for non-payment of wages may be reduced."
His Excellency remarked that as the Amendment was substantially the same in principle as the Resolution, he had no objection to accept it in its stead, and as the next (3rd) Resolution was its corollary, he should not put it to the Board.
The next Resolution read was as follows:-
4. That no immigrant actually engaged under written contract of service be permitted to enter into a fresh contract of service until after the expiration, by efflux of time, of that under which he has been previously engaged; or if such previous contract be not expired by efflux of time, until twenty-four hours after the cancellation
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of such contract, and the delivery into the hands of such immigrant of his certificate of discharge."
The Honourable Mr. Antelme moved the following Amendment :-
"That the law as to re-engagements of immigrants should be carefully recon- sidered, so as to prevent the possibility of any interference with the free will and choice of the immigrants as to such re-engagements."
His Excellency observed that, although this Amendment was not very definite, he could cordially accept it.
The next Resolution read was as follows:-
"5. That the medical attendants on estates be officers appointed by the Governor, and receive such remuneration as the Governor, with the advice and consent of this Board, may determine.'
The Honourable Mr. Antelme moved the following Amendment :-
"That, although its defects have not come prominently into notice, owing to the general care bestowed by employers on the labourers employed by them, the law rela- tive to the medical attendance on estates is defective, and should be amended."
His Excellency observed that he had already declared his intention not to press
his Resolution, and he was prepared to receive the Amendment as the expression of the Board's opinion. At the same time his Excellency was desirous to make an amende honorable to the proprietor of Fontenelle estate, In one of his Excellency's Memo- randa it was stated that there had been ten deaths to ten persons treated out of hospital on that estate. This was
an error; it should have been one death only, and Ins Excellency explained how the error had arisen. His Excellency, however, would lay on the table four Returns of all the estates in the Colony for 1871, by which it would be seen that the parallelism he had drawn in his Memorandum was essentially correct.
The Honourable Mr. Pitot and the Honourable Mr. Naz having called his Excel- lency's attention to other errors in the statement in the Memorandum, and his Excellency having replied that he did not now believe that the Report from which he had obtained his statistics was a correct one, the subject dropped.
The next Resolutions on the paper were then read, as follows:--
"6. That powers should be granted to the Protector of Immigrants to suspend the transmission to India of requisitions for new immigrants from estates the proprietors of which have been convicted of habitual ill-usage of the immigrants thereon, or on which the mortality among such immigrants has, throughout the twelve months immediately preceding, been excessive; provided that such excessive mortality be not due to accidental causes, or to the prevalence of any general epidemio.
7. That the Governor be empowered, under conditions to be hereinafter defined, to remove any immigrant from estates which are unhealthy, or on which it has boon proved to the satisfaction of the Governor, on the Report of the Protector of Immi- grants and the Stipendiary Magistrate of the district, or of the Protector and any Court of Petty Sessions assembled by order of the Governor, that the labourers under contract of service have been ill used.”
His Excellency reminded the Board that he had declared he would not
press those Resolutions unless it was likely they would meet with the unanimous assent of the Board. As he could not expect this he should leave them to the careful consideration of Honourable Members, and refrain from putting them to the Board.
His Excellency then very cordially thanked Honourable Members, and expressed his extremely high sense of the manner in which they had discharged their public duty that day when taking the Resolutions he had proposed under consideration. Their acceptance of the general principles he had suggested redounded very much to their credit, and he was grateful to them for the manner they had treated his proposi- tions. There had been mutual concessions, but, fortunately, they had been of a nature as to be acceptable to the whole Board.
The Honourable Mr. Pitot then put the following question, of which he had given notice :---
"If the Government has taken or intend to take any steps to remedy the practical inconveniences signalled in the letters from the Mauritius Emigration Agents at Calcutta and Madras, under date of the 1st November and 30th October last, respec- tively, and on which the Immigration Committee reported in its Report No. 1 of 1872." The Honourable the Protector replied that the substance of the Report of the Immigration Committee had been communicated to the proper authorities, but that pending their decisions the emigration of labourers would greatly depend on the rate of wages planters were disposed to offer.