PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTILLIC.O.882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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complement of last year, will be required in the present year to prevent the risk of great inconvenience and pecuniary loss to the planters.
2. The number annually introduced in the last six years has never, except during a short period subsequent to the crisis of 1847-48, sufficed to meet the wants of the planters. There has been little variation in the difficulty of obtaining man, and during the last year, notwithstanding the increased immigration, there has been an advance in the rate of wages.
3. The present state of the Finances amply justifies the proposed increase, especially as the recent reduction in the rate of transport will enable the Government to bring down the increased number at an expense very little exceeding that incurred in former years in bring down 6,000 men.
4.-With regard to the second question, mooted by his Excellency in the present Minute, viz. the expediency of introducing a larger proportion of women, the Committee are fully sensible of the evils arising from the limited number which has hitherto been brought down, and of the advantages which the Colony would probably derive from its being largely increased. The Council has ever been alive to the importance of this question, and the funds have never been wanting to meet the cost of introducing a larger number of women. But the difficulty has been in procuring them in India; in inducing respectable women to emigrate. The Committee are aware that frequent orders have been sent to the Agents in India to endeavour to increase the proportion of females, but hitherto with a comparatively small result.
5.-The Committee are convinced that a system, which encourages the male emigrant to look forward to a return to his home after an absence of five years, must discourage the emigration of the females of his family. Under all systems of emigration, whether spontaneous and unaided, or conducted by the Government, the proportion of males is excessive. In such a system as that existing between India and Mauritius, where men go forth,-not so much from the pressure of necessity,- in doubtful search of employment, and with the intention of settling in the country of their adoption; but for the purpose, and with the certainty, of benefiting their condition, and to supply a demand-a pressing demand-known to exist elsewhere for their labour, with the prospect of making what to them is a fortune in a limited period, the excess of males is likely to be still larger. An effectual remedy can only be found in a radical change of the present system of immigration, a change long sought for by the Council and the public, and one which it is hoped, with his Excellency's assistance, will not be long deferred,-by which the emigrant from India will be encouraged to come and settle in the Colony, and not be taught, before starting, to look only to a temporary absence and an early return, at the expense of the Colony, to his native country. The Colony does not begrudge this expense, but it protests against the encouragement which it constantly holds out to the immigrant to return to India, and the hindrance which it presents to the acquisition of a resident population.
6.-It is, moreover, entirely in opposition to the system proposed by the Secretary of State, of endeavouring to establish the Indians in villages in the Colony.
7.--If it be maintained as being indispensable to induce the immigrant to quit his country, it must be tolerated as a necessary evil; but the experience of past years of the emigration to this Colony of 1835-37, and of the annual emigrations to Moulmein and Ceylon, leads the Committee to believe that it is not indispensable; and, at all events, it cannot be maintained by the Indian Government as a condition of allowing emigration upon this ground. It would be for this Government to decide, after å trial of a different system, whether this additional encouragement to the Indian coolie to emigrate to Mauritius were necessary, or otherwise. The same amount might be better bestowed as a bounty upon coming here, than as a premium upon returning.
8. Entertaining these views the Committee can assure his Excellency that he will receive every support on the part of the Cofincil in any endeavours he may make, or any plan which he may propose, for increasing the proportion of female immigrants, and encouraging the formation of a resident and fixed population. Perhaps the offer of a bounty to women, or married men, might prove useful, and the outlay would eventually prove an economy.
9.-One observation the Committee have to add, to prevent a misconception of part of his Excellency's Minute. It is too true that the small proportion of women among the immigrants has provoked an unusual number of crimes arising out of jealousy and revenge; but the Committee believe that in other respects the moral character of the immigrants is not deteriorated, but improved, by their visit to this
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Colony, and that the proportion of offenders generally is as small among this class as among persons of the same class in any other part of the world, considering that they form the most humble and uneducated portion of the community.
10. With regard to education, the Committee are quite sensible of the benefits likely to arise from its extension among the Indian population, and the Council will be found ready to support any measure brought forward by the Government for that purpose. But his Excellency cannot but be aware of the difficulties surrounding the question, the indisposition or indifference of the Indian parents, the habits of the children, the want of qualified teachers acquainted with the Indian languages, the wide dispersion of the small number of Indian children existing in the island; all combining to discourage individual attempts at the education of this class, and presenting obstacles which even the Government will find it difficult to overcome. In this, however, or any other measures for the amelioration of the working classes, or any portion of the community, his Excellency may count upon the earnest co-operation of the Council.
No. 2.-
-Read: Second Minute of his Excellency the Governor, dated 24th instant, Immigration from on the subject of immigration from Madagascar.
Madagascar.
11. The Committee entirely concur with his Excellency in the expediency of encouraging immigration from Madagascar, and are prepared to support any measure brought forward for making an experiment on the western coast,
12. However opinion may be divided as to the expediency of substituting a Malgache for an Indian labouring population, there can be no doubt that the intro- duction of some hundreds, or thousands, of Malgache labourers cannot fail to be beneficial in many respects.
19. If ever such a periodical immigration could be established as that which exista between Madras and Ceylon, and Madras and Moulmein-if labourers would come in at their own expense, or even at that of the Colony, to assist at seasons when there is a demand for extra labour on the sugar estates-the benefit would be sensibly felt, and some portion of the visitors will always become permanent settlers.
14. The Committee therefore request his Excellency to lay before the Council a plan for carrying out the views expressed in his Minute, with an estimate of the sum that may be required to cover the expense of its execution.
15. The only observation which the Committee will offer is that, in addition to the precautions suggested by the Secretary of State, in his Lordship's despatch No. 18
of 26th November last, care must be taken to introduce only men of those races which are disposed to agricultural pursuits.
16. The Committee cannot conclude without thanking his Excellency for the solicitude shown in his two Minutes to forward the interests of the Colony, by furnishing it with an adequate supply of labour on wholesome conditions.
(Signed) RAWSON W. RAWSQN, President. Council Chamber, February 26, 1851.
Minute of his Excellency the Governor on the application of Sinnavassen for leave to reside in the Colony, and to take some of his Countrymen into his employment.
I am of opinion that every encouragement should be held out to Indian immi- L. R. 1485. grants, after the termination of their five years' industrial residence, to settle in the Colony, and that if they desire to purchase land, or to follow any trade or other calling, that may tend to this desirable end, no obstruction or difficulty should be thrown in the way.
A different policy appears to me to be short-sighted and ill-judged. Upon the admission of the immigrant to all the rights and immunities enjoyed by the other classes of the community, it seems equitable that he should consent to forego his claim upon the Colony to a free passage back to India.
As it is manifest from the report of the Protector that doubts continue to exist in the minds of the Indians upon the subject, they ought, I think, to be removed, either by a public notification, or in any other manner that may appear to be effectual.
(Signed) J. M. HIGGINSON. Redwit, March 7, 1851.
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