PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PILLIC.O. 882
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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to the assistance of the sugar industry, Of the total authorised loan of £600,000, the appropriation to sugar estates was, by the terms of Clause I. of Ordinance No. 12 of 1892, limited to a little more than a moiety. If in times of distress assistance may legitimately be given to the victims of calamity within any area affected, by what process of reasoning can the sugar industry be excluded? Within the last few years great catastrophes have overwhelmed not only sugar-producing Colonies, as in the case of Martinique and St. Vincent, but urban and agricultural districts in various parts of the world; it is perfectly inconceivable that the grant of assistance, universally and freely given to communities occupied in the pursuit of other industries, is to be considered in the case of sugar-growing communities as a "bounty" in the sense in which the term is to be interpreted by the International Conference. It would hardly be too much to say that such a decision would be to place sugar-producing areas outside of the pale of humanity.
9. The Mechanical Transport Ordinance of 1902, like the Hurricane Loan Ordinance, was passed to meet a calamity of exceptional severity, which, like the hurricane of 1892, affected, as I have already indicated in this report, not only the sugar planters but every class of the community. It is true that it provided for advances to planters only, but this was necessary to secure the essential condition that under no circumstances, so far as humanly speaking possible, should the repay- ment of the loan become a burden on the general taxpayers of the Colony for the relief of the sugar industry. No other class except the planter could furnish the security required. Nevertheless it must not be thought that if Government has assisted the sugar industry by a method appropriate to its circumstances, it has failed to assist in other appropriate ways the rest of the population. Large sums of money are being expended in giving facilities of transport to the commercial and general community throughout the island.
10. What has been said in respect of the Hurricane Loan and Mechanical Transport Ordinances applies generally to Ordinance No. 43 of 1902. But the scope of this Ordinance was much more limited. It provided only for temporary advances to enable planters to carry on the cultivation of their estates for a period of four months, which expired on the 31st of March last. It makes no provision for the assistance of the sugar industry beyond that date. The "bailleurs de fonds" referred to in the title are the financial agents whose capital has hitherto sufficed to meet the requirements of the Colony, but it was insufficient to meet the extraordinary and immediate necessities of a crisis against which it was impossible for them, from the quite unprecedented nature of its causes, to make anticipatory provision. The Government practically gave the "bailleurs de fonds" only such temporary assistance as, had they been within reach of the facilities available in financial capitals in Europe, they could probably have obtained on more favourable terms from the banks.
GENERAL LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.
11. The subject of the enactments grouped under this head may be concisely stated as follows:-
Ordinance No. 44 of 1851 provides for the accurate marking of sugar bags. Ordinance No. 13 of 1875, Article 6, prohibits the planting of the river reserves with anything (including sugar canes) except certain specified trees.
Ordinance No. 12 of 1878 (Labour Law), Chapter IV., Articles 36 to 66, together with Schedules 3 to 12, embody the provisions of the law governing the Government introduction of labourers from British India. The requisitions may be made by owners or lessees of estates (Article 39) which are defined by Article 14 to include sugar, fibre, vanilla or coffee estates, and also any cattle farm or any wood-cutting or other industrial establishment.
Ordinance No. 5 of 1879 authorises the formation of Sociétés Anonymes for the purpose of acquiring and working sugar estates or other landed properties, the law as to commercial companies being applied to thein.
Ordinance No. 8 of 1881 creates, in favour of Government, to whom the railways in the Colony belong, a privilege for the recovery of sums due in respect of the carriage of goods.
Ordinance No. 28 of 1892 (Customs Law), Article 47, provides for the shipment of sugar and other Colonial produce liable to export duty by sufferance previous to the delivery of a perfect entry for the same; and Article 19 allows transhipment
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of Colonial sugar from coasting vessels in Port Louis harbour to outward bound vessels.
Ordinance No. 23 of 1896 reduces the proportional registration duty of 2
per cent.
to per cent. on transactions relating to sugar canes, vanilla, aloe fibre and other land products.
12. The only enactments which seem likely to require explanation are the Ordinances controlling the immigration of labourers from India. I do not, of course, propose to discuss the general question of State-aided immigration of Indian labourers into the tropical Colonies. I shall limit what I have to say to the question of the contribution from the general revenues of this Colony annually voted by the Council of Government.
13.
I may point out that the provisions of the law are not limited to the intro- duction of Indian immigrants for sugar estates, but, by Clauses 14 and 39, include "Fibre, vanilla or coffee estates in cultivation, and any cattle farm or any wood- cutting or other industrial establishment."
14. The expenditure on the introduction of Indian labourers may be divided into two classes:-
(A) The actual cost of introduction and maintenance of engaged labourers; (B) The expenditure necessary to carry out the measures thought necessary by the Government of India and the Local Government to secure the selection and consequent limitation of the engaged labourer, and to provide the exceptional protection of their interests in the Colony. 15. In this Colony, the expenditure in Class (A), the entire cost of the intro- duction and maintenance, including medical attendance and treatment, is borne by the requisitionists. They pay, therefore, all the costs, and it may be said, more than all the costs for which they would be liable were they free to engage labourers recruited by private agencies and liable to the general local laws controlling the relations of master and servant.
16. The expenditure under Class (B) on account of the measures imposed by the Government in fimitation of the freedom of immigrants are borne by the general revenues of this Colony, and this may be reasonably justified on two grounds:-
(i.) That they are essential to the protection of the general community from the prejudice to public order and the pauperism which would almost certainly result from an invasion of foreign labourers recruited in the cheapest market; and
(ii.) That, as a consequence of the exceptional measures imposed by Govern- ment, the general community eventually derives the advantages accruing from the cheap labour of a disciplined, orderly and industrious working population.
17. I will add only one word in explanation of Ordinance No. 8 of 1881, though it is hardly necessary. The privilege secured to the Government for the recovery of all sums due for carriage of goods by railways has no particular reference to goods carried for sugar estates. In any case it seems difficult to understand how a measure designed to give Government absolute security for the recovery of debts due to it could be considered to have the effect of a bounty.
Government House, Mauritius,
June 27, 1903.
Enclosure 2 in No. 94.
SUGAR ORDINANCES. EXPORT AND IMPORT DUTY.
Ordinance No. 29 of 1895. Ordinance No. 29 of 1895. Ordinance No. 16 of 1897. Ordinance No. 51 of 1898. Ordinance No. 50 of 1899. Ordinance No. 35 of 1900.
CHAS. BRUCE,
Governor.
Schedule B, Item 138, Import Duty. Schedule B (exports), Item 1, Export Duty.
Amending Ordinances.
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