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5. In British Guiana, where education is legally compulsory for all children if a school has been established within two miles of their home, the question of the education of Indian children engaged the special consideration of the late Governor, Sir F Hodgson (see paragraph 11 of his confidential despatch of the 6th of December, 1910*). The difficulty in that Colony is not so much one of providing educational facilities, as of inducing the immigrants to take advantage of the education which the Government has provided for their children.
There at the present time a movement on the part of a large number of Hindus and Mahomedans to establish schools of their own in the towns of Georgetown and New Amsterdam.
6.
In Trinidad elementary education is open to all children without distinction of religion, nationality or languages, and according to the latest returns there are at present 7,816 East Indian children on the rolls of the Canadian Mission Schools, which are aided by the Government.
7. In Jamaica the Government has recently started special schools for the children of East Indians, and the Inspector of Immigrants reports that the immi- grants are much interested in the matter, and that there has so far been a very fair attendance of children at the schools.
8. In Fiji the recently enacted Immigration Ordinance empowers the Govern- ment to require the erection upon plantations of such school buildings as may be deemed necessary for the education of the children of the indentured immigrants. The Governor is also empowered to make rules for the compulsory attendance of children, the collection of school fees, &c.
9. Mr. Harcourt is, therefore, disposed to consider that, at any rate in the case of Trinidad and British Guiana, the educational advantages enjoyed by the children of coolie immigrants are distinctly superior to those which they would have obtained had they remained in India, where, if Mr. Harcourt is correctly informed, the system of elementary education is by no means universal or complete. There appears also to be little reason for doubting that the steps which are now being taken in Jamaica and Fiji should have the effect of making the arrangements for the education of coolie children in those Colonies as satisfactory as are the existing arrangements in British Guiana and Trinidad.
10. With regard to the acquisition of land by immigrants, full statistics are not available in the case of the West Indian Colonies, and the Governors of those Colonies will be invited to furnish further statistics; but the following figures are instructive.
11. In British Guiana, during the years 1909-10 and 1910-11, property of the value of $71,000 was transferred to East Indians, and in 1910-11 the value of their property as assessed for local taxation amounted to $845,000. In the same year fifty-seven grants of Crown lands were made to East Indians, amounting in all to 1,126 acres.
In Trinidad, during 1910-11, 1,283 acres of Crown lands were purchased by East Indian immigrants.
12. In 1910-11 the East Indians in Jamaica owned 11,462 acres, valued at £54,809. In this Colony practically all the unindentured immigrants are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the large majority of these own or rent lands, on which they work for a part of each week, while for the remaining time probably three or four days-they obtain employment upon adjoining properties.
13. In Fiji 455 new leases of land from the native owners to Indians were registered in 1910. The total area of native lands under lease to Indians on the 31st December, 1910, was 19,420 acres in 2,185 separate leases, the rent varying mainly from 5s. to 12s. per acre. This area is exclusive of land leased from other than native owners.
Some 2,000 more acres were cultivated by unindentured Indians in 1910 than in the preceding year; and the number of stock, &c., in their possession increased largely.
I am, &c.,
H. W. JUST.
29722
125
No. 79.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNORS. [Copy to India Office, 1 November, 1912. L.F.] (British Guiana. No. 262.) (Trinidad. No. 362.)
SIR,
WITH reference to previous correspondence upon the subject of emigration
Downing Street, 29th October, 1912. from India, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter* from the India Office enclosing a despatch from the Government of India which deals with certain points of detail connected with emigration to the West Indian Colonies and Fiji.
2. The question of further amending the Immigration Law in compliance with the views expressed in the third and fourth paragraphs of the despatch from the Government of India will, of course, receive the careful consideration of your Government, though it would probably he advisable to defer the actual introduction of further legislation pending the visit to [British Guiana] [Trinidad] of the officers whom the Government of India is deputing to visit the Colonies. I am of opinion that your Government would be well advised to adopt, if possible, any amendments of the law which the representatives of the Indian Government may recommend after full investigation and discussion of local conditions and requirements.
I have, &c.,
29722
SIR,
No. 80.
L. HARCOURT.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNORS. [Copy to India Office, 1 November, 1912. L.F.] [Answered by Nos. 100 and 111.]
(Jamaica. No. 303.) (Fiji. No. 287.)
Downing Street, 29th October, 1912. WITH reference to previous correspondence upon the subject of emigration from India, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter* from the India Office enclosing a despatch from the Government of India which deals with certain points of detail connected with emigration to the West Indian Colonies and Fiji.
I consider that the Government of [Jamaica] [Fiji) should comply with the request contained in paragraph 5 of the despatch from the Government of India, and I shall be glad to learn that steps are being taken to give effect to the desire therein expressed.
2.
35974
SIB,
I have, &c.,
L. HARCOURT.
No. 81.
INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 14 November, 1912.)
India Office, Whitehall, London, S. W., 13th November, 1912.
IN continuation of Sir Richmond Ritchie's letter of the 6th September, t
I am directed by the Marquess of Crewe to state, for the information of Mr. Secretary Harcourt, that the Government of India are consulting local Governments on the question of the insertion in labour emigration contracts of a statement of penal liabilities, and that a further communication will be made when the matured views of the Government of India have been received. In the meantime no action will be taken, as the Government of India fully recognise the necessity of a full discussion of the subject with the Colonial Governments concerned.
I have, &c.,
T. W. HOLDERNESS.
• No. 12.
• No. 69.
↑ No. 66.
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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