PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
C.O. 882
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—–—NOT TO
18
In a committee of the Council to which I had referred the question, Mr. Bruce, the Colonial Secretary, mentioned that the cumulative imprisonments imposed by this law were so excessive that in one case in which he suspended the prosecution of a number of Indian labourers they were actually liable under the law to 200 years' imprisonment. 28. I found that this legislation had come upon the Indian population like a sort of social hurricane, breaking up homes and families, and sending men, women, and children to prison who had been well conducted and industrious.. On calling for a return showing the fines and imprisonments inflicted by this recent law during a single year, 1882, I found that the total amount of the fines was 108,544 rupees, of which sum about 5,000 rupees had been remitted by the Lieutenant-Governor, and about 5,000 rupees paid, leaving over 98,000 rupees of fines to be worked out in prison. The number of days' imprisonment in the various prisons actually served in lieu of those unpaid fines during 1882 was 21,741 days. I have made some inquiries into the comprehensive punishment of the Indian population, and I have not found a single instance in which the punishment was not, in my opinion, unjust. It was, however, the punishment enforced by the law and not by the magistrates. The penalties had been put into the law against the wishes of the Mauritians, and on the avowed state- ment of the local executive that the Mauritian magistrates were too lenient in dealing with such offenders.
29. "Great leniency" was the charge laid against the district magistrates, nine-tenths of whom were Mauritians, in the report sent to the Secretary of State in 1881, to induce him to consent to the law. I have never seen the charge of "great leniency" in dealing with the labouring classes laid against the magistrates in other Crown Colonies.
30. The extraordinary definition of the word "tree" and the oppressive penalties, which involved the Indian community in so much suffering, have now been repealed by an ordinance I am transmitting in a separate Despatch for submission to the Queen. The Mauritian press, and every Mauritian in the Council of Government, warmly supported the repealing ordinance.
31. Such are some of my own experiences of official work in Mauritius. They all indicate a striking and suggestive contrast between this and the other Crown Colonies in which I have served.
32. I do not enter into the arguments on either side of the reform question, but the contrast which has thus been impressed upon me by the daily work of my official life compels me to doubt whether it would be just or politic to keep Mauritius on the same constitutional level as the other Crown Colonies.
33. Assuming that Her Majesty's Government might adopt the resolution carried by Sir Virgile Naz, that the Legislative Council should consist of 21 members, 14 to be appointed by the Crown, and seven to be elected by the inhabitants, and the right of dissolution leading to a renomination and election being reserved to the represents- tive of the Queen, it may be asked how would the change affect the Governor, the general control of the local executive, and the action of the Secretary of State ?
34. Looking at it purely from the point of view of the Government I think such a change would be safe and beneficial.
35. The controlling authority of the Governor in such a Constitution would, for Imperial purposes, or at any great crisis, be quite effective. On the other hand, the vigilant supervision of the elective third of the Council would expose abuses of which the history of the present Constitution of Mauritius shows so many sad instances. When I see in that history how incomplete and distorted the information sent to Downing Street has sometimes been, and the grave mistakes that have resulted, I feel confident that no one would benefit more by the proposed change than the Secretary of State.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Derby,
&c. &c.
&o.
·
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
19
Enclosure 1 in No. 10.
"THE MERCANTILE RECORD AND COMMERCIAL Gazette."
Port Louis, Mauritius, Saturday, December 29, 1883. REFORM of the CONSTITUTION of the COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT.
The Council of Government.
His Excellency Sir J. Pope Hennessy, K.C.M.G., Governor, in the chair. Special meeting of Friday, 21st December.
Present: The Honourables the Colonel W. H. Hawley, Officer Commanding the Troops; H. N. D. Beyts, C.M.G., Acting Colonial Secretary; W. H. L. Cox, Acting Procureur-General; J. H. Finniss, Acting Auditor-General; C. M. de Joux, Collector of Customs; W. Greene, Acting Protector of Immigrants; M. Connal, Surveyor L. Raoul, J. Fraser, General; R. Stein, Sir V. Naz, K.C.M.G., C. F. H. Adam,
A. P. Ambrose, and J. A. Ferguson.
Absent: The Hon. C. Antelme, C.M.G. (through illness). Acting Secretary: C. F. Gahan, Esq.
HON. L. RAOUL'S MOTION :—THE ELECTIVE ELEMENT IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL,
The Honourable L. RAOUL said :—
Sir, I rise to move the resolution of which I gave notice at the last meeting. It includes two questions: the first is that the constitution of our Council is no longer in accordance with our present condition either from a moral or from a material point of
view.
We all know that our Constitution is based on the Royal instructions sent to Sir Charles Colville and which bear the date of the 20th July 1831. They, in broad terms, enact that the Colony is to be governed by a Governor assisted by an Executive Council composed of a few officials and a Legislative Council composed of 14 members, seven official and seven unofficial, appointed by the Crown, the Governor retaining a casting vote. The number of unofficials had been increased so as to give them a majority; but We are now eight on each side, and, even that small concession has been withdrawn.
if I am not mistaken, the intention of Government was, on vacancy, to bring it back to With the exception that the unofficials have now the right its original figure, seven.
of initiative, save in financial matters, we are in the same political situation in 1888 as we were in 1831.
It would not, perhaps, be out of place to make a brief comparison of the state of things at these two epochs.
I have found much interesting information in the book of Baron d'Unienville, which,
I am glad to hear, is to be reprinted.
In 1829 our imports amounted to
In 1881 do.
In 1881 do. do
In 1829 our exports were
do.
-
In 1831 our exportation of sugar was of fch. pds.
In 1881 it was of do.
In 1891 our revenue was of
In 1881 it was of
In 1831 our expenditure was of
In 1881 it was
Rs.
8,900,000
24,670,000
7,810,000
35,526,000
-
70,200,000
235,000,000
1,556,000
$
7,813,000
1,918,000
7,600,000
Our population on the 1st January 1830 amounted to 96,000, composed of a general population of 27,000, and slaves 69,000.
On the 1st January 1883 the population amounted to 359,322, of which 112,501 belonged to the general population, and 246,821 to the Indian population.
The above statement refers to the material condition of the Colony, but great as the difference is in favour of the present time it is nothing as compared with the difference in the moral condition of the inhabitants. In 1831 slavery still existed, and its baneful influence was visible in all the classes of the population.
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