249
PUBLIC
PECORD OFFICE
TUTTI¶|
Į Į Į Į Į π Į Į I I I I I I I II
Reference -- ·
C.O.882/19
12
5
8
full force are comparatively rare. The liability, however, remains and has the effect of greatly restricting the choice of cultivation. The sugar cane is exceptionally hardy and resistant to wind, but is unable to withstand an exceptionally severe cyclone, such as that of the present year, which inflicted widespread damage to the crop, resulting in a reduction of the total yield of sugar by about one-third of the anticipated output. The cyclone of 1892. besides causing unprecedented destruction of property, involved the deaths of 1,282 people.
Malaria was almost unknown in the island until 1866 when an outbreak occurred which resulted in over 30,000 deaths. It has since been endemic, particularly in the lower parts and around the coastline, and accounts for about 18 per cent. of the total death- rate each year.
3. The capital of the Colony is Port Louis with a population of about 50,000. Since the malaria epidemic of 1866 it has been practically abandoned by the white population as place of resi- dence, but is still the commercial as well as the administrative centre of the Colony. The greater part of the population of Euro- pean descent has now migrated to the chain of townships which have sprung up in the upland districts of Plaines Wilhems, the most distant and largest being Curepipe which is situated at an elevation of about 1,800 feet on the central pleateau about 17 miles from Port Louis. There is consequently a large daily movement of people into and from Port Louis.
The total population at the last census (1921) numbered 376,485 -(the figures for 1931 are not yet available but the estimated total number is 397,000); 265,524 were Indians, about 4,000 Chinese, the remainder, constituting what is still officially known as the
general population," being of European, African, or mixed origin. Pure whites number about 10,000 and are for the most part the descendants of the French colonists. The English element is the smallest, consisting mostly of officials and military, and the members or representatives of a few merchant firms and companies.
The diversity of racial composition is reflected in that of language. English is the official language, but French is also spoken both in the Council of Government and the Law Courts. The Indians and Chinese speak their own languages. A French patois known as Creole is spoken by the population of African or mixed Euro- pean and African origin and is usually also the medium of speech between that and other sections of the coloured population.
4. When first discovered by the Portuguese in the early years of the 16th century the island was uninhabited. It was first colonized by the Dutch but was subsequently abandoned by them
+
9
and later was settled by the French, largely with a slave popula- tion from Africa, who named it Ile de France. In 1810 it passed by military occupation into the possession of Great Britain and has since had the status of a British Colony.
On the emancipation of the slaves in 1835 difficulties were experienced in obtaining labour for sugar cultivation. The liberated slaves withdrew their labour from the fields and their descendants have maintained their aversion from agricultural employment and now comprise the artisan and urban labouring classes. To meet the situation resort was had to indentured Indian labour from India, and the Indian immigration thus started has gradually developed into a permanent settlement which has entirely transformed the racial character of the Colony. Indentured labour is no longer necessary, and only a small proportion of the present Indian popula- tion are themselves emigrants from India. The great majority are removed from emigration by two generations and regard Mauritius as their home country. With the spread of education many of the younger generation of Indians have ceased to be agricultural or general servants and they now furnish a considerable proportion of the recruits to the lower ranks of the public services as clerks, teachers, etc. To an increasing extent they are also entering the ranks of the legal and medical professions, and are acquiring the ownership of land and house property. A more recent immigration has been that of the Chinese who have gradually taken over the greater part of the business of retail shopkeepers throughout the Colony. The import and wholesale trade is still partly in the hands of the white Mauritian population and in those of a few British firms of long standing in the Colony, but is being shared to an increasing extent both by the Chinese and by Indian Mohammedan traders from Bombay.
5. The constitution of the Colony has undergone a number of changes and now consists of a Governor, nominated by the Crown, and a Legislative Council, known as the Council of Government, which is composed of eight ex officio members, nine nominated, of whom three must be persons not holding any office in the public
Perhaps the most interesting fact during the French possession of the island was the extent to which, unlike the French West Indian colonies, it was saved from the troubles of the French Revolution. The disorder appeared to be taking the same course as elsewhere, but was checked by the arrival of the Comte de Malartic. Malartic had fought well in Canada and had been appointed by the party which wished to imitate the English constitution. He helped the Colonial Assembly to maintain a settled government. In a necessarily brief study in the archives of Mauritius I have noticed a remark- able contrast between its State papers of the period and the extravagant documents of revolutionary France. From 1792 to 1800 the Comte de Malartic preserved the forms of a general of the monarchy, and, himself the only French general officer who kept his command without interruption for the whole of the Revolution, gave the Colony a continuity in its history which made it unique in the French dominions.-Ivo D. ELLIOTT.
1
Br | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-