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confident that, when all the information and explanations just laid before the Board by honourable members reached the Secretary of State, Lord Kimberly would take them into impartial consideration, and allow them their due influence in modifying his views and directions. . For these reasons the honourable member would not hesitate to vote against the resolution.
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The Honourable Mr. Beyts must pray for a second hearing, as he thought that on some of the points that had been raised misapprehension existed, and as, besides, they had a personal bearing. He would first refer to the recommendations of the Immigration Committee. Mr. Naz had said that when the Immigration Committee was called upon to discuss the question whether any further inducements were necessary to maintain immigration they had not reported for return passages. That was simply an error. It was not necessary, when the Report was framed, to report upon that question, never- theless it was referred to by our agents as a thing that would greatly help their labours. Mr. Conran, our agent at Madras, had advocated an extension of wages and a larger proportion among the sexes as the most pressing alterations, but he had also mentioned return passages as an inducement that would have great weight. And in a corre- spondence anterior to that, 8th February, 1871, Mr. Eales, our agent at Calcutta, had written in much more precise language, distinctly advocating the change, and he thought that these statements could not be regarded as crochetty, when it was found that from 7,000 requisitions we got 2,127 men, and that out of 8,000 sent in this year we had as yet got but 761. He would let those figures speak for themselves against the rhetoric that had been lavished on this point. Then he came to the question of the statistics of the Census. It was from no feeling of parental pride for his child that he took up the cudgels here. He had trusted to the reports of the stipendiary magis- trates, and they had made out that there were but 3,000 Indo-Mauritians working on estates. Perhaps the discrepancy that was alleged to exist might be accounted for by the fact that no notice had been taken of domestic servants, of whom there were always a very large number on estates. He knew that the proportion of children was always very large, something like 20 to 30 per cent., and he had no doubt that it was more still among the Indian population; but when figures were handled as they had been that day any case might be made out. But what was more important than figures was the question whether the proposition was in the interest of the planter, the immi- grant, and the Colony at large. That was a point worthy of consideration. If it was not, why then, as a matter of course, the resolution should be rejected. And when a proposition was so two-sided, as was the one before them that day, as on the one hand to offer inducements to good men, men who would work and conduct themselves well to come here, and on the other to remove the idle and the vagrant, he could have no doubt as to the answer to the question he had raised. He did not think that the change would prove a great expense, but while it would remove the idle and the vagrant, it would enable the Colony to send home those deserving persons who had not the means to go of their own accord. There are many such industrious persons who cannot manage the passage for themselves, and whom he had to turn away from his office day by day. If he was reproached for that, he must accept the reproach, for he was bound by a system, and could not act otherwise than he did. Would it not be well to extend the privilege of return passages to those who, because they had acted well, but had been unfortunate, through marriage, personal sickness, or the illness of their families, and had not the means to go to their own land, to return to their parents and relatives, or, perhaps, as was often the case, to realize property? He was fain to admit that, in some cases, he had felt obliged to strain the limits of his powers, and to evade the strict letter of the law by giving them employment on board ships. But it must be clear that his means of helping men in that direction must be very limited, and the means at his disposal under the existing regulations were quite insufficient. He thought he had already said enough to show why the measure should pass, because it would be most decidedly in the interests of the Colony. His honourable friend opposite (Mr. Jourdain) had objected to his remark that the Colony had reached its culminating point, and perhaps had passed that stage. He had not in the least meant that the prosperity of the Colony was on its decline, but that the production of sugar, the staple of the island, had reached its greatest limit cf development; for it must be recollected that there was not a vast territory, with large tracts of still uncultivated land, but that it was limited, and could only produce a certain amount. Reference had been made to the cost of the passage to India being, in 1858, 30 or 40 rupees.
The Honourable Mr. Stein.—80s, or 408.
The Honourable Mr. Beyts.—Well, 40s, was nearer the figure. Reference had also been made to the fact that Indians were now compelled to pay a very high price for their
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passages, and more than they would have to pay if they were allowed to select their own vessels. From that implication he inferred that the regulations were attacked as being overstrained, and that the Indians suffered from too much protection.
The Honourable Mr. Jourdain said that he had implied nothing of the kind, but had simply repeated what was commonly stated by Indians, that if they went in the ships chartered by the Protector they had to pay the Government twice as much as they would if they were allowed to select their own vessel,
The Honourable Mr. Beyts was glad was the honourable gentleman's meaning as it gave him an opportunity of showing the fallacy of such a statement by a case in point. A party of Indians, some thirty or forty in number, fancying or being prompted to fancy they could do without the protection of Government, had paid into the hands of a self-constituted protector who thought the Passenger's Act and the Emigration Department unnecessary, 30 or 40 rupees each, quite as much as they would have had to pay the Government, and this not to obtain a return passage, but to obtain no passage at all. He believed some of those instances had been taken into Courts of law and convictions obtained, but that clearly showed that the protective regulations required to be rather extended, for in such cases to speak of the freedom of contract simply meant the freedom of deception. These were the points on which he might have spoken, but considering the lateness of the hour he would simply conclude by again expressing his sincere conviction that the Resolution promoted the interests of the immigrants, the planters, and the Colony at large.
The Honourable Mr. Naz thought his honourable friend the Protector had not done justice to him in regard to what had taken place in the Immigration Committee in February last. Mr. Naz did not deny that the casual allusions of our agents to the return passages had been talked about in Committee, but, the Protector included, had been unanimous against granting them, and that was the reason why they were not even alluded to in the Report. Since then the Protector had changed his opinion on the matter, and he fully admitted the honesty of his motives; but the opinions of all the other members of the Committee remain unchanged; and they cannot help being surprised, the Report having been adopted by the whole Council, that before trial of the effect of the recommendations therein contained, before even the agents had acknowledged the receipt thereof, this Board should be suddenly pressed to vote this resolution as sine qué non to the obtaining of labourers from India.
His Excellency.-Mr. Beyts communicated his views to me as far back as March 1871.
The Honourable Mr. Beyts admitted the truth of Mr. Naz's statements that nothing was expressed by him on the occasion to which he referred with regard to return passages, but it was for the very good reason that other inducements were thought to have a prior claim to attention. He had, however, most decidedly not committed himself as might be inferred from the statement of Mr. Nax to any adverse statement against the present proposition.
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His Excellency said that at this late hour he should be unpardouable if he occupied the time of the Council by attempting to sum up the debate, but that he could not allow it to close without congratulating the Board on the ability and moderation with which it had been sustained. He was sure honourable members would also share in the pleasure he had derived from the speech of one of their newest members. would not conceal that when this debate commenced he had felt regret at the thought that the adoption of the resolution could not be urged by the keen logic and ready tongue of his honourable friend the Procureur-General, but he must now say that the honourable goutleman who discharged his duties had filled his place in a manner which left nothing to desire.
He would not enter into the tangled forest of figures spread before them for he felt he should be lost in ita mazes; but there were two figures which had not been denied or controverted, and which seemed to him conclusive evidence in favour of some such measure as that before them,
The Protector had told the Board that during the last two years 15,000 requisi- tions had been sent to India, and only 2,760 immigrants had arrived from thence.
These figures seemed conclusive. If we were prepared to give up immigration and rest entirely on the supply of labour in the country, as his honourable'friend opposite seemed inclined to do, well and good. Of course there was then no necessity for the re-establishment of return passages or the grant of any other inducement to intending immigrants. But if not, he verily believed that, unless some such step were taken, the dwindling stream would dry up altogether. It was because he verily believed this that