PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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holers whose names and properties were not given ‚rade Supplementary Table to Table 1 of Report .
35% were employed under verbal contract by the proprietors whose names and estates were given, and 39% were similarly employed by the 92 small proprietors and householders not named.
6. Africans on the lists of the Inspector of Africans are generally not under his immediate supervision after the allotment term has expired, unless they are under written contract of service before a magistrate, but they can always apply to the Inspector for assistance, or to prosecute their claims it they feel aggrieved, or it a verbal contract has not been complied with They come under the Order in Council of 7th September 1838, and Ordinance No. 15 of 1957, the same as ordmary and Seychelles-born
labourers.
7. For the future the Inspector of Africans in his returns will separate those working under written rentract from those under verbal engagement.
The 261 boys and giris of African parents referred to by the acting Inspector do not comprise all born in these islands They were the Seychelles-born children he happened
to meet with of the Africans meati med on the returns.
Moitie Moitie" system, and other-
9). There are Africans living on properties on the wise, and engaged in fisheries and other employments, having Seychelles-born children none of whom figure.
10. The Inspector of Mr.cans has been requested to take a note of all these people in his next report, as near as may be practicable, in separate returns.
11. The marriages among Africans are increasing. When they become Christians the clergy men induce them to marry The Inspector also brings his influence to bear.
12. The Acting Inspector will be more strict in future in the matter of payment by clothes in lieu of wages to minor Africans. The object of the Regulations passed last to ensure minor Africans from being wronged in this matter will not be permitted to be evaded on any plea. If accounts be not kept by the employer, the value of the clothes will be estimated by the Inspector.
year
13. The deductions made from wages are always carefully looked into, the Africans themselves being questioned It is also seen that the proper amount of wages is given I think the double cut ought to be done away with for these islands, to which it is not applicable, whatever may be the case at Mauritius. In these islands, where there are no doctors on the estates, nor Lospitals, and for reasons that may be legitimate, labourers absent themselves from the property, and there is at times some difficulty in sifting the evidence, when the double cut has been enforced by the proprietor, to ascertain positively whether there were just grounds for it or not, that is, whether the absence was or was not for a reasonable purpose. The ignorance of the African sometimes places him at a disadvantage in giving evidence in these matters, and unless the case is clear no steps can be taken in his favour. Fortunately the double cut is not often enforced.
14. The question of bons has been disposed of here, no more are allowed to be given. As there is no Savings Banks yet established in this place, the Africans have no secure place to put their earnings, at an interest. The Inspector has some such savings in charge on deposit.
15. The question of payment in goods instead of money, and the question of shops on estates, was inquired into carefully last year-July and August-more especially at Denis Island and on Mr. Hodoul junior's estate. I had a list supplied me of the prices charged the Africans at Denis Island (which is the property of Dr Brooks and Mr. Dupuy, managed by the latter), and I caused Mr. Dupuy to refund to the Africans all charges in excess of the prices paid at his store at Port Victoria.
I do not anticipate any trouble whatever at Denis Island from paying the people their wages in money as it becomes due. People receive their money wages on other estates, on islands such as Silhouette and Frégate, and no complaint of robberies or violence are made. There is no police constable at Frégate Island, but one could always be supplied if found necessary.
16. The hours of work, more especially for women and children, are carefully watched. There is an evident improvement in this respect. It was more from habit and from carelessness that minors and women were over-worked on certain properties than from any other cause. A want of system was ofttimes the fault.
17. The proprietors have built hospitals on their estates, but they now generally have a building set aside when required under the new regulation for the lying-in of women. The attendance at the public hospital is only insisted on in cases of aggravated ulcers, dysentery, when it shows serious symptoms or is prolonged, and other cases of like nature that evidently require medical treatment. Proprietors themselves now send all such cases, aware of the responsibility they incur if they fail to do so.
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14. The question of illegal transfer was decided by the magistrate, and the due the Africans were paid to them.
wages 19. The births, marriages, and deaths of Africans on the returns forwarded, are for all islands comprised in the Seychelles group and the Amirantes group and also the Island of Providence. The return of the Acting Inspector is not, however, quite correct. I find it differs from the Blue Book returns. The errors of the Acting luspector were due to a police serjeant to whom he entrusted the additions. The correct numbers are-- marriages, 17; births, 54 males and 43 females, total 97; deaths, 37 males and 28 females, total 65. The increase of marriages in 1975 over 1874 was therefore only three. There will be a marked increase, however, this year.
20. The new camp for Africans employed by the Local Government on public works and roads is completed. There only remains the planting of fruit and other trees, and laying out of garden plots. There are 10 well ventilated and solidly-con- structed dwellings of wood, of three rooms each, whitewashed and neatly thatched, and a public kitchen with a corrugated iron roof. There is a hospital yet to be built. The supply of water is ample and of good quality.
21. I have received to day a petition addressed to your Excellency by Dr. Brooks and Mr. Charles Dupuy (a member of the Board of Civil Commissioners), which I have the honour to enclose. If these gentlemen can pay their Africans in bons perhaps others may apply for a similar favour.
22. Denis Island, 52 miles N of Mahé, was visited last year for the first time by the Acting Inspector. The state of things was unsatisfactory. The labourers complained of the payment by bons, not having confidence in the then manager; they could not read bons, but they could count money. I reproached Mr. Dupuy with the state of things found, who pleaded ignorance. There were 11 men, 17 women, 4 boys, and 3 girls on the island. On the second visit made by the Acting Inspector, he found a new manager, and the labourers seemed to offer no opposition to payment by bons. There were on this occasion 13 men, 15 women, 4 boys, and 3 girls on the island.
23. The illegal deductions from wages and food, and the extra high charges for goods supplied, complained of and discovered on the first visit, had been stopped, and there was nothing to complain of in this way at the second visit. There was one point, however, I asked Mr. Dupuy to endeavour to remedy last year, and he promised to do so, but with no result as yet. It was this: the 14 allotted African women were sent to Denis Island for five years, 3 were given to Dr. Brooks with other Africans in 1874, 7 were given to Mr. Victor Morin (a farmer, co-proprietor of Denis Island) in 1871, and 4 had been transferred to Mr. Morin by Seychelles proprietors subsequent to their allotment to the latter. I represented to Mr. Dupuy that in my opinion it was a hard case; that no allotted African woman should be sent there unless accompanied by her husband, and certainly five years was a long banishment under other circum. stances. I considered in these distant islands that there should be no labour except such as is absolutely free, and no minor Africans should be sent there who are orphans. Legally, however, I could not interfere. Probably under the new management the women are satisfied to remain, and most of them will be free next October-their five years of allotment services will have expired.
24. I enclose to your Excellency the copy of a report I called upon the Acting Inspector to furnish me, upon a liberated African woman" Pretty," allotted to Mr. E. Sanzier in 1871, and transferred to Mr. V. Morin, and sent to Denis Island. At his last visit to this island the Acting Inspector found this woman insane. She is now, her allotment having been cancelled, in the Government camp at Port Victoria, and is reported to be recovering.
25. The Island of Providence, referred to by Dr. Brooks in the petition, is about 380 miles south-west of Mahé, and has been included by a late Mauritian Ordinance in the jurisdiction of the Oil Islands magistracy of Mauritius. There were 4 African womer allotted to Dr. Brooks in 1871, whom he sent to this island; 1 died the year following. There are, besides, 20 other Africans whom Mr. Dupuy, the manager, states to be under verbal engagement only; there is a resident local manager and his family. The island has never been visited by an inspector.
26. On Denis and Providence Islands there are 17 allotted African women.
The
3 at Providence (allotted in 1871 to Dr. Brooks and sent there) will be free to return to Mahé this year.
Of the 14 at Denis Island 10 will be free to return next October,
1 in February 1877, 3 will have to remain until August 1879. None of these women are Christians or are married. There are 7 minor Africans at Denis Island, none of H 3