22
No. 9.
GOVERNOR SIB J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL GRANVILLE, K.G. (Received June 2, 1886.)
(No. 166.) MY LORD,
Government House, Mauritius, May 10, 1886. THOUGH the mail for England leaves to-day, Mr. Clifford Lloyd has sent to me within the last hour three letters of to-day's date addressed to your Lordship, which he says he is also tranemitting to you direct, complaining of me on various grounds, and requesting me to transmit those letters by to-day's mail.
2. One of those letters contains 20 folio pages and over 50 pages of enclosures. There is a standing rule in Mr. Lloyd's office that no letter to the Secretary of State can be dealt with unless received seven clear days before the departure of the mail.
3. As I have not time in the few minutes left to me to write separate Despatches about these communications, I venture to deal with them in this one Despatch.
4. The bulky etter refers to Mr. Clifford Lloyd having substituted the method adopted in the Chief Secretary's office in Dublin Castle (as he states in his Minute of the 5th of May 1886) instead of the regulations for the conduct of official business and correspondence he found here on his arrival.
5. He attributes views to me about some officials and about public business that I do not hold,
6. The regulations he set aside without my sanction were carefully framed by Sir George Bowen and Sir F. N. Broome and approved by the Earl of Kimberley. I have worked them for three years and found them an admirable code.
7. The regulations are suited to the local circumstances of Mauritius. The Dublin Castle system would not be suited to this island.
8. As regards his short letter, it is true that I showed to each member of my Executive Council and to Sir V. Naz what Mr. Lloyd had said as to them in his letter of the 4th instant to your Lordship. That this was necessary seems evident from the fact that the Executive Council and Sir Virgile Naz have contradicted his statements. No one else has seen his letter.
9. His third letter deals with what he says took place in the Executive Council. But the Minutes of the Council are at variance with his statements; and his account of conversations with me is more imaginary than real.
I have, &c. (Signed)
The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
J. POPE HENNESSY.
P.S.-Since this Despatch was written, a fourth letter of to-day's date to your Lordship from Mr. Clifford Lloyd has come to me also to be transmitted by to-day's mail. I have no time to make any comment upon it.
23
3. On Mr. Escott's arrival in the Colony, he was duly appointed and gazetted (junior) assistant secretary, and the new office machinery, in no particular corresponding with the old, was put into motion.
4. The titles of the officers and of the clerks, the departments of the office, the duties of the whole staff, and the mode of conducting business were all varied.
5. The complaints to me were numerous from heads of departments as to references and orders conveyed to them from the Conial Secretary's office, and as to the difficul- ties they had to contend with in the admistration of their departments. At the same time I found the Colonial Secretary's office quite unable to cope with the immense labour entailed upon it by the system in force. The pressure of work was so great that it was impossible to adequately consider the various subjects currently coming forward], but by utilising the excellent material at hand, the mechanical labour was much reduced, while the quality of the work done was remarkably improved. Hasty and ill-considered action was avoided or remedied, and I sew a prospect of soon being able to consider various subjects, urgently calling, in my opinion, for attention on the part of the Govern- ment, such as, notably, the prisons, educational, poor law, and police administrations.
6. The working of every departmental administration in the Colony more or less depends upon the Colonial Secretary's office, as well as does the satisfaction, and I may say the peace of mind, with which heads of departments are enabled to perform their duties. The importance of my office in this respect was daily brought home to me.
7. The reorganisation may be said to date from the 1st April, and your Lordship will observe by the following table that the labours of my own office and of heads of depart. ments were substantially lightened
1886.
Mouths.
•
Number of Letters
received from Local Departments and Foreign Officers,
and also from Private Individuals.
Beosivad.
Docketed.
Letters issued to Local Departments
and Foreign Officers,
and also to Private Individuals.
Entered in Numeri-
cal Eegister.
1 Indi-: Entered in Depart- mental and h vidual Registers.
To Local Depart- menta.
To Foreign Ofoes.
To Individuals (Pri-
vate).
Government Orders
to Heads of De-
partments.
References to Heads of Depart-
menta.
48
978
Total issued.
Tomi raosived and insed.
January
1,000
1,000 1,000
1,000
212
29
977
214 1,155 1,890
1,890
February
882
662
883
857
189
900 1,188 1,645
2,737
March
973
978
978
978
300
54
879
198 1,814 3,140
3,118
April
759
759
759
759
131
38
199
1,083 1,499
9,181
ឌ
2 2
MY LORD,
Enclosure 1 in No. 9.
Mauritius, May 10, 1886.
I VERY much regret to have to inform your Lordship that I am experiencing the greatest difficulty in the performance of my duty owing to the action of the Governor as regards the internal administration of my office.
2. In accordance with instructions from the Secretary of State, I drew up a scheme for the reorganisation of my office, which was approved by the Governor and put into operation pending your Lordship's sanction.
Following this scheme a second assistant secretary was appointed, and the work waS divided between my two assistants and myself, while the qualifications of the clerks were utilised by a proper disposition of work among them. I found it necessary to completely abolish the system previously followed, which was incapable of dealing, to my satisfac tion or to that of Mr. Bruce, with the immense increase of labour entailed by the policy pursued by Sir J. Pope Hennessy, which raised the total number of documents passing through my office from 13,623 in 1881 to 35,399 in 1885, the establishment remaining the same.
-
The table may thus be summarised :-
Letters ressived.
Letters and ReferenOSE despatched.
Orders
to Honda of
Departments.
References to Hands of Departments.
Total received and issued.
-
Average for January, Fodemary, and March
Average for April
951
1,958
806
1,200
3,010
759
1,429
1,038
2,181
8. Although the Governor lives eight miles distant at " Réduit," and does not come to Port Louis for the transaction of business (except to attend a council of Government, which has so far only been held twice), I frequently went to his Excellency with papers for consultation and for his decision.
9. If your Lordship will be good enough to refer to paragraph 2 of Enclosure B., your Lordship will find fully set forth the good reasons I had for introducing (inter alia) a change in the system of putting papers together for the consideration of the Governor. C 4
་་་་་
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
1