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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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11. The greatest damage to property occurred in the western portion of Port Louis, that part of the town containing the best houses. Whole streets like Labourdonnais and Madame Streets were literally swept away, and the loss is roughly estimated at over Rs. 10,000,000. The Mayor reckons that 3,000 houses, or one third of the town, have been wrecked. Allowing four persons to each house, which is a small computation, this would give 12,000 people houseless in Port Louis alone. But convents also and schools have been levelled to the ground, and about 80 rescued nuns and children are now in rooms at the Line Barracks kindly lent by the officer commanding the troops.
12. I have no reliable returns of the damage done to sugar mills and factories, but assuming that there were 120 on the 28th of April, there remain probably not more than 80 which have weathered the storm, whilst the rest are damaged, so far as masonry is concerned, to a very considerable extent, though I am happy to say that I do not hear of much injury to the machinery and plant anywhere, even in those mills, the chimneys and walls of which have fallen.
13. The Protector of Immigrants informs me that the camps of labourers are almost everywhere in ruins, but such is the industry and the generous behaviour of the Indian population, that their attitude in all quarters is reported to be excellent, and they have accepted the position created by the cyclone without a murmur and with voluntary offers to help their employers.
14. The cane crop, as was feared, has suffered very much, and as it is the staple product of the Colony, the loss will be very heavily felt. The ordinary yield is 250,000 tons; the crop promised so well that an extraordinary yield was expected, but it is now hoped, though not very confidently, that 125,000 tons will be the produce of the year.
What that means as to the prospects of next year, your Lordship can realise as well as, and better, than I can place before you, and this will explain the reasons which in another Despatch I put forward on behalf of the necessity of assistance to this industry.
15. Mauritius is sure to rise soon from its present distress, if monetary aid is soon forthcoming, but the damage done is too heavy for the capital resources of the Colony to bear at once urgent primary expenditure and the ills of the future.
16. If to complete the picture of desolation, I add that there is not a tree which has not failen or been shorn of its leaves and of its branches, I shall have given you a very faint idea of the present state of this once bright dependency of the British Crown.
17. But I will not conclude without saying that throughout the calamity, instances of noble devotion have come to my knowledge, which it will be my pleasing duty to submit to you, and that even now activity reigns, and serious efforts are everywhere made to repair the disaster.
18. In another Despatch I have given you in journal shape an account of the measures which I took day by day to meet the situation created by this unforeseen calamity.
The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,
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I have, &c. (Signed) HUBERT E. H. JERNINGHAM,
Officer Administering the Government.
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Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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