PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
LT།། 「CO.88?
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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your having placed yourself in direct and unreserved contact with all classes of the population since your arrival, they rest the assurance that you will be able to represent those feelings to the home Government with perfect accuracy. They place full con- fidence on the broad-mindedness of the eminent statesman who is now at the helm of the Colonial Office; and they rely greatly on a continuation of the liberal policy you have inaugurated since your arrival-of generously and justly recognising the rights of the natives of the Colony, and of doing justice to their merits, irrespective of all dis- tinctions based on considerations of origin, race, or creed. The certain result of that policy, besides leading to a right appreciation of the Colony and of its inhabitants by the home Government, will be to do away with all agencies of disintegration which we may have amongst us, severing the population into sections opposed to one another, and estranging them from Government; to strengthen the inducements to concord which exist amongst us, and to tighten the bond of reciprocal confidence between the governed and the Government. (Applause.)
The following resolution :-" That the constitution of this Council which exists since "1831 is no longer in accord with the material and intellectual condition of the people, "and with the feelings and opinions of the time, and an elective element should be “introduced therein," was then put to the vote, and carried by a majority of nine against six, as follows:-For: The Honourables J. A. Ferguson, A. P. Ambrose, L. Raoul, H. Adam, Sir V. Naz, K.C.M.G., the Surveyor-General, the Acting Protector of Immigrants, the Acting Procureur-General, and the Acting Colonial Secretary. Against: the Honourables J. Fraser, R. Stein, the Collector of Customs, the Acting Auditor-General, the Acting Receiver-General, and the Officer Commanding the Troops.
The Council adjourned for half an hour.
On the sitting being resumed, the Hon. Sir VIRGILE NAZ, K.C.M.G., rose and said :-
Sir, I rise to move the resolution of which I had the honour to give notice :— "That the alterations in the constitution of this Board proposed by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his Despatch of the 11th of June last, would be attended with many more objections than advantages.
"That this Council can only be adapted to the wants and circumstances of the Colony, and can only be acceptable to the large majority of the Colonists, by being com- posed of at least 21 members, -one-third of whom at least to be directly chosen by electors belonging to all classes of the community, and the remainder to be nominated by the Crown, not less than one-half of the nominated members being unofficial."
After proceedings conducted during four months, with great public spirit, and with remarkable tact, judgment, and moderation, a petition to the Queen was signed by 3,329 most respectable inhabitants of this Colony, praying that the present Council of Govern- ment be replaced by a Legislature consisting of 10 officials, 10 nominated unofficials, and 10 members directly elected by the people.
To that petition the Secretary of State has replied, in a Despatch dated the 11th June last, on which your Excellency, in compliance with the instructions therein contained, now asks the opinion of this Board.
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This Council has this day already affirmed by a large majority "that the time has come when an elective element should be introduced into this Council."
The able
speeches which you have heard have given very conclusive reasons in favour of that assertion, and I now ask you to define your first vote by assenting to the two paragraphs of the resolution which I have the honour to move.
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The first paragraph is “That the alterations in the constitution of this Board pro- posed by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his Despatch "of the 11th June last, would be attended with many more objections "than
advantages."
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Let me first call your attention to paragraph 7 of that Despatch. Lord Derby says: "But although Her Majesty's Government are unable to advise the Queen to comply "with the prayer of the petitioners, they have considered whether some alterations may "not, with advantage, be made in the mode of appointing unofficial members to the " Council of Government, so as to make that body more directly representative than it " is at present of some of the principal interests with which it has to deal, and to bring These "it more thoroughly into accord with the feelings and opinions of the time." words must strengthen the hopes of all those who are convinced of the necessity of
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progressive reform, Lord Derby fully acknowledges that it is desirable and advan- tageous to render the Council more representative of the interests with which it has to deal, and that it is not in accord with the feelings and opinions of the time. But his Lordship's proposal that the Mayor of Port Louis and the Presidents of the Chamber of Agriculture and of Commerce should sit ex-officio at the Board would not at all realise the desired objects, and would only create disappointment and dissatisfaction. These proposals need even be no longer discussed as far as public opinion in Mauritius is con- cerned. Every one in Mauritius seems to agree that they are impracticable.
The Despatch does not even distinctly say whether those three members are meant to be in addition to the present eight unofficial members, or whether they would take their seats successively on the occurrence of the three first vacancies. It is, however, generally admitted that they would be three additional members. Otherwise the intended con- cession would remain a dead letter for an indefinite time.
Most of the members of this Board are members of the Chamber of Agriculture or of the Chamber of Commerce. By the rules of both bodies the president is elected for one year, and cannot hold the same office for two successive years, and there would be very great objections to the alteration of that rule. Members of this Board, who are so largely interested in agriculture and commerce, are now frequently elected chairman of both chambers. If the two chambers had to select their president in view of his sitting as an additional member of this Board, they would be precluded from selecting actual unofficial members, and would gradually be led to select not the best president for their chamber but the president who would likely make the better figure at this Board. Those members being elected for one year only, would generally be inefficient councillors from want of sufficient knowledge and experience of the work of this Board, and they would have to vacate their seats when they would begin to acquire such know- ledge and experience.
The qualifications of the electors of both chambers are now very vaguely defined. If the chambers were invested with the high function of electing one of the 11 unofficial members of Council, they would become important political bodies, and their natural aims and objects would thereby be deeply affected and modified. Their electors would have to be incorporated with well defined qualifications. A large proportion of the sugar estates now belong to public companies by shares. How would the members of the Chamber of Agriculture be elected by the shareholders of those estates? Would the directors only be electors, or also shareholders who might buy shares for being qualified to be elected, and sell the shares after the election? Registering officers would have to be appointed, and registers of electors duly kept. In fact all the diffi- culties of a direct election would have to be met, without any of its corresponding advantages.
The municipal corporation possesses a legal charter, and would not offer the same preliminary difficulties.
But though I am a well known friend of the municipality, I am bound to say that the sitting of every successive mayor as a member of the Board would increase neither its efficiency nor its popularity, and the great majority of those who are able to form an opinion, chiefly those who know what has several times taken place when the six can- didates among whom the Governor selects the mayor had to be appointed, are of opinion that it is still better to have a Legislative Councillor selected by the Governor on his responsibility, than by the municipal Council out of its 18 members. Mayors fit to sit at this Board have several times been selected by the Governor; but every mayor need not unavoidably sit ex-officio here, chiefly if the people are allowed to elect a fair proportion of the members of the Council. Gentlemen may do as mayors without being fit' legislators.
A second election by a limited body of elected members is repugnant to the spirit of the British Constitution, and to British ideas of representation. It is condemned by most English and American constitutional writers. It opens the door to private influences of relationship, of friendship, or of interests, and even to coteries and intrigues. It is fraught with inconveniences without any real corresponding advantages. It frees the elected from responsibility towards those whom he is supposed to represent, and it virtually deprives the latter of the elective franchise, by depriving them of their direct control over their intended representative. Before the Reform Bill of 1832, some limited bodies and corporations elected members of the House of Commons, but that abnormal privilege was taken away.
In 1847, the home Government proposed to the Colony of New South Wales to have the members of their Legislative Council elected by their district councils or munici
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