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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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(f) Arc adequate facilities afforded to emigrants to carry on correspondence
with their friends and relatives in India?
(g) Are sufficient facilities afforded for the education of Indian children? (h) Female indenture. Enquiry should be made as to the working of the system in force in Trinidad and British Guiana under which women are indentured for five years but are required to work for three years only. If the system is found to be unsatisfactory, it should be con- sidered whether the best solution would be to retain the same period for both sexes, but to relieve women from the obligation to labour for any part of the period.
(i) Suicides and immorality on the estates. The allegations made to the effect that the large number of suicides and the prevalence of immorality on the estates are due to the indentured system should be enquired into.
List of papers to be supplied to the officers to be deputed to the Colonies importing Indian labourers.
1. Note on Emigration from India, by J. Geoghegan. 1873.
2. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 39-Public (Emigration), dated the 24th March, 1877.
3. Despatch from the Government of India, No. 15, dated the 3rd May, 1875.
4. Notes by Surgeon-Major Comins on Emigration from India to Trinidad,
British Guiana, Jamaica, and Surinam.
5. Despatch from the Government of India, No. 99, dated the 10th December, 1908.
Report of the Committee on Emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates and its Appendices.
6.
7.
1911.
8.
1912.
9.
1912.
1912.
1912.
10.
11.
Despatch from the Government of India, No. 30, dated the 25th May, Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 68-Public, dated the 12th April, Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 83-Public, dated the 17th May, Despatch from the Government of India, No. 39, dated the 4th July,
Despatch from the Government of India, No. 45, dated the 1st August,
12. Discussion at the meeting of the Imperial Legislative Council held on the 4th March, 1912, on Mr. Gokhale's resolution on indentured labour.
13. The Annual Reports on Indian Immigration into the Colonies in question for the last three years.
14. The Immigration Ordinances of the different Colonies including amending Ordinances.
15. The Indian Emigration Act, 1908.
16. Annual Reports on Emigration from the ports of Calcutta and Madras for the last three years.
17. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 170-Public, dated the 16th December, 1910, and enclosures.
1911.
18. Despatch from the Government of India, No. 7, dated the 9th February,
19. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 105-Public, dated the 28th June, 1912.
1912.
20. Despatch from the Government of India, No. 49, dated the 15th August,
21. Despatch from the Government of India, No. 50, dated the 28th Septem- ber, 1911.
22. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 52-Public, dated the 15th March, 1912, and enclosure.
23. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 107-Public, dated the 28th June, 1912, and enclosures.
24. Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 171-Public, dated the 13th September, 1912, and enclosure.
37653
(No. 272.)
SIR,
No. 85.
FIJI.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 27 November, 1912.)
[Answered by No. 95.]
Government House, Suva, Fiji, 15th October, 1912. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 222, of 2nd August last,* on the subject of the proposed change in the status of the Fiji Emigration Agent at Madras, to take effect on or about the 1st April next, and the retirement of Mr. Conran on pension on or about that date.
2. I enclose, as directed, a paper of particulars,† showing the pension grantable to Mr. Conran, and I note that it will be chargeable to the Indian Immigrants' Intro duction Fund.
3. Provision has not been made in the Estimates for 1913 to meet the alteration in the amount to be provided for the future salaries of the Emigration Agents, nor for the proposed pension to Mr. Conran, as it seems to be preferable that a final decision should be awaited. Any additional expenditure can then be provided in the usual manner by supplementary appropriations in 1913.
4. In the fourth paragraph of your despatch you refer to the recommendation made in Sir Henry May's despatch, No. 169, of 27th May last.* that the Colony should secure as an emigration depôt at Madras the premises which were recently occupied by the Natal authorities. When Sir Henry May made that recommendation he had not received the enclosed report from Mr. Conran, comparing the merits of the Fiji depôt with those of the late Natal depôt, nor had he before him the information which Mr. Conran has now supplied as to the nature of this Colony's tenure of that depôt. Mr. Conran reports that the depôt is rented by him for Rs. 100 per month, inclusive of the rent of an adjoining building in which the Agent's office and the quarters of a Resident Medical Officer are provided.
5. The Agent-General of Immigration, in a minute of the 23rd July last, of which a copy is enclosed, called attention to the unauthorised change of the depot by Mr. Conran, to the expenditure by the Colony in recent years in improving the depôt, and to the absence of any details as to the nature of tenure. Mr. Conran was requested by telegraph on the 26th July last to furnish full particulars on that latter point. A copy of Mr. Conran's reply is attached for your information.
6. The terms, as stated by Mr. Conran, on which the depôt is at present rented do not appear to be satisfactory from a business point of view. This Government has spent comparatively large sums in permanent improvements on premises which are held under verbal agreement only, and its tenure under that agreement is termin- able at three months' notice by either party. Mr. Conran appears to have endeavoured to attain security of tenure by making advances to the landlord, and, under a verbal understanding, the landlord, apparently, acknowledged a debt of £105 on 2nd August last repayable to Mr. Conran by deductions from the rent. I have ascertained that Mr. Conran has never reported to this Government the present position of affairs, and that he has not obtained sanction for any expenditure on buildings since 1909.
7. In view of the warning given in the fifth paragraph of your despatch. it appears to be desirable that, until matters in connection with recruiting of labour in India have been placed on a more stable footing, the further consideration of the question of acquiring a new depôt at Madras should be deferred. The rental of £6 13s. 4d. a month for the present depôt, inclusive of separate office premises, seems to be a moderate charge for the use of 25 acres, as compared with the rent of the Calcutta depôt, towards which Fiji Days £27 18s. 7d. per month, and an endeavour should. I think, be made to retain the present premises, if a proper lease can be secured. Unless, therefore, you consider that the matter is one on which the new Agent should be required to report, I suggest, for your approval, that I be authorised to request Mr. Conran to report definitely whether this Government can obtain an offer, in writing, of a lease on the existing terms for a period of five years, with the right of renewal for an additional term of five years if required. It should be a
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