PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.
885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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petitioners were secured by the then existing laws a fair price for their sugars in the British markets, and confidently expected a reasonable return for their persevering industry and efforts, and large capital invested.
"For they could not imagine that your Majesty's Government would ever withdraw from the free labour produce of your Majesty's colonies that pro- tection which was necessary to secure it from competition with the produce of slave-producing
countries.
A competition which your petitioners could never sustain, under the expensive system of local government and consequent heavy taxation which has hitherto prevailed in Mauritius, and the costly supply of labour to which the regulations of your Majesty's Government, with respect to immigration and the relations of masters and servants, have limited the colonists.
4. That your petitioners have been cruelly dis- appointed in these their well-founded expectations, for not only have they been prevented from reaping any advantage or return whatever from the
great efforts they have made in reliance upon the good faith and sacred obligations of the British Legisla- ture towards them, but they have been plunged in ruin by the operation of the Sugar Bill of 1846, whereby foreign slave-grown sugar was admitted for consumption in Great Britain at so small a discrimi- nating duty, as to bring it into immediate com- petition with the produce of this island; whilst it is
further enacted by the Bill, that this discriminating duty shall be reduced in amount yearly until its final abolishment in the
year 1851.
5. That the immediate result of this Bill has been disastrous and ruinous loss to your petitioners from the fall in price of sugar which followed its publication, and from the utter discredit thrown by
it upon your Majesty's sugar-producing colonies from their known inability to compete with foreign countries employing slave labour.
6. That the immediate consequent loss from this Bill to your petitioners by fall in price cannot
be calculated at less than 87. sterling per ton, as shown by the Gazette average price of the year 1845 as compared with that of 1848.
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Which loss on the crops
Quantity of sugar (of 1846-47 62,000 tons exported to the 1847-48 51,000 United Kingdom.
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"J
,,
1848-49 40,000
In all 153,003 tons amounts to no less a sum than 1,224,000l. sterling.
"7. Your petitioners humbly represent to your Majesty that in consequence of this fearful loss and attendant discredit, your petitioners are involved in grievous distress, and many of them are utterly ruined;
whilst numerous families, hitherto accus- tomed to affluence, are looking in vain for the means
of support.
"8. That this loss has caused the ruin of most of the mercantile houses connected with the colony in London.
"9. That the local chartered banks have been compelled to suspend their operations, in conse quence of the large securities they hold having become inactive and comparatively valueless.
"10. That the finest estates in the island have become unsaleable at almost any price, notwithstand-
ing the extent to which they are cultiveted, and the ample machinery with which they are supplied.
"11. That commercial credit is at an end; and that, in the absence of all confidence in the future prosperity of the colony, there no longer exist suffi- cient resources to permit of the cultivation of sugar (which is the great and almost only source of revenue and employment to the inhabitants of Mauritius) being continued.
"12. That the mortgagee now receives no interest
on his claims.
his
"That the proprietor is compelled to part with
sugar at a price which does not repay the cost of production.
"That the planter, harassed by ill-disciplined and pampered labourers, is at length wearied and discou- raged by his long-continued and fruitless efforts.
"That the mechanics and artisans are rapidly falling out of employment; and that the more intel- ligent of the labouring classes look with dismay on the daily increasing difficulties which surround their employers, and the effects of which must inevitably fall upon themselves.
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13. Such your petitioners humbly represent to
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