PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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condition that the offer, if received, should be open for acceptance by the Government at any time during six months.
SIR,
I have, &c.,
BICKHAM ESCOTT,
Governor.
Enclosure 2 in No. 85.
Fiji (overnment Emigration Agency, Madras,
20th June, 1912.
In reply to your letter, No. 5283/1910, dated the 23rd April, 1912, I have the honour to forward, together with this, in a separate cover, à map* showing the positions of the emigration depôts in the city of Madras, and a rough plan of the premises at present used as the Mauritius and Fiji Emigration Depôt, and to report as follows:-
2. As a glance at the map will show, the locality of all coolie emigration depôts at Madras maintained by Colonies importing Indian labour under regulations of the Government of India is confined to a corner of the city adjacent to its north-eastern limit. For more than half a century it is only here that such depôts have found a local habitation, and, all things considered, there can be no better place in the whole city. It is one of the least populated and least busy portions of the city, and stands among "topes (groves) of the coconut palm, with numerous tanks and wells around and about. Chronologically catalogued, the sites that have been and are occupied by the said depôts are as follows :~~~
(I.) The site of the old Mauritius Depôt, which, after more than forty years of work, was, on Mauritius suspending indentured immigration from India, closed in 1898, and the premises abandoned.
(II.) The site to the north of the above, on which now stand a number of huts occupied by fishermen. Here was located the Demerara Depôt that worked temporarily for one year in 1883-84.
(III.) The site occupied by the Natal Depôt, which was opened about 1870 and closed on the 30th June last year, on the Government of India stopping indentured emigration to Natal. This lies between sites (I.) and (II.), and is the Natal Depôt referred to in paragraph 2 of your letter.
(All the above three sites, as will be seen from the map, face Suri- anarayana Street, to the west.)
(IV.) The site which was taken up by Mauritius for its depôt in 1900, when indentured emigration to that Colony was resumed. It lies to the north of site (II.), facing Kuppam Street, to the south, with the Kup- pam Hemlet to the east and Surianarayana Chetty Street to the west. It was while the Mauritius Depôt was located here that, in 1902, Fiji joined Mauritius in importing Madras coolies, and it then became the joint Mauritius and Fiji Emigration Depôt. In January, 1905, how- ever, this site had to he abandoned, owing to the outbreak of plague in the Kuppam Hamlet, and the depôt removed to site (V) described below. (All the above four sites are on the Surianarayana Chetty Street, by which they are hounded on the west.) (V.) This is the site on which the Mauritius-Fiji Depôt is now located, and forms the premises referred to in paragraph 1 of your letter. It lies to the north-west of the Natal Depôt (site III.), and opens to the Tiru- votiyur High Road on the west. While site IV. described above was occupied as the Mauritius and Fiji Depôt, this site V. was used by the Mauritius-Fiji Agency as a subsidiary depôt; but when, owing to the outbreak of plague in Kuppam, site IV. was abandoned, this site V. became the main depot, and has remained so since. It is the site of
the oldest emigration depôt in the city, having been used by Jamaica as its depôt when that Colony was importing indentured labour from India about fifty years ago.
Colonel Reeves, I.M.S., the late Medical Inspector of Emigrants, considered the place "an ideal site for an emigration depôt." The extent of ground is about twenty-three acres, which affords space to accommodate not only the thousand and odd emigrants for which, with the existing provisions, the depôt is licensed, but also even double that number if required. Since 1907
• Not reproduced.
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there has been no need for a separate subsidiary or quarantine depôt for the accommodation of newly arrived coolies, as such coolies are now quartered in the quarantine camp in the depôt itself (shown in the plan of the premises herewith submitted)—an arrangement the advan- tage of which, as compared with hiring separate premises, will be obvious. The Natal Depôt (site III.) does not possess this advantage, as it is licensed to accommodate only about six hundred coolies, and has no room for expansion, and, therefore, if again used as a working depôt, would require to be supplemented by subsidiary depôts, of which the Natal Agency maintained two up to closing in June last year. Besides the Quarantine Camp, we have also within the same premises a segregation quarter (shown in the plan) where cases of suspected infection can be isolated. Owing to the limitations of the Natal Depôt, separate outside premises had to be engaged by that Agency for this purpose.
3. I trust that the above account of the premises used by this Agency as its emigration depôt, together with the map and plan which go to you with this letter, will give the Government an adequate idea of these premises. As to the cost referred to in paragraph 1 of your letter, I have to state that it has been incurred not in "repairs to the depôt," but in substantial erections made from time to time during the last six years, in compliance with directions of Medical Inspectors, as well as on my own initiative, for the improvement of the depôt, so that we now have what I believe to be one of the finest emigration depôts in India.
And all
this, I hope may be permitted to say, has been effected with the most scrupulous regard for economy. When we shifted hurriedly into these premises in January, 1905, owing to the outbreak of plague in the vicinity of those that we then aban- doned, there were only four permanent buildings, viz., one accommodation shed, the dispensary, the single women's quarters, the depôt office, and the store-room, with kitchen, marked O, L, G and E, respectively, in the plan-so that the coolies had then to be accommodated in temporary thatched sheds till better accommodation was provided. Now, with the exception of the one accommodation shed (Q) in the quarantine camp, and two (V and W) in the segregation quarters, all the accom- modation sheds in the depôt, including the single women's quarters, numbering ten, are permanent buildings, with substantial masonry pillars, tiled roof and cement flooring, except the single women's quarters, which has brick flooring. In lieu of the then one tap supplying water from the municipal main, there are now several taps so distributed as to bring water within easy reach of the inhabitants of every accommodation shed, these taps being fed by a large elevated tank (marked C in the plan) connected with the municipal pipe. In the place of the thatch enclosure which served as the general latrine then, there is now a substantial structure (N) partitioned for males and females, not only enclosed by substantial masonry walls, but also furnished with water-taps and floored with smooth granite slabs laid on concrete and joined with cement so as to form a floor that can be easily washed and disinfected, the washings being received in sinks at the back constructed with brick and cement. Then instead of a tattie screen for bathing, which was then in use, there is now a permanent bath-place, enclosed by masonry walls and furnished with an elevated tank into which water is pumped from the adjacent well (bath and tank marked M in plan). There are also the depôt nurse's quarters (D) and the rice-cooling shed (F), substantial buildings, which did not exist then, while the long wall shutting in the depôt from the south has since then been raised by two feet. It is only due to the landlord to state here that without his co-operation and willingness to bear a part of the expenses, as far as the buildings are concerned, it would not have been possible to have got them at what they have cost the Govern- ment. I have to add that the cost of the improvements has not been entirely borne by Fiji, portions thereof having been debited also to Trinidad-that is, the cost of such improvements as have been effected while the depôt has been used by that Colony.
4. Coming now to the question whether it would be advisable to transfer our depôt from the present premises (site V) to those lately occupied by the Natal Agency (site III), there is not much to add to what I have already said to show that I do not think that such a change would be for the better. Considering that the extent of our present premises is almost quite double that of the Natal depot pre- mises, the former being about twenty-three acres and the latter about twelve acres,
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