PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
Inclosure No. 3.
882
2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Inclosure No. 4.
L
Inclosure No. 1.
Inclosure No. 2.
56
Inclosure 6 in No. 20.
DETAILED Statement of Deaths on Sugar Estates in the District of Black River.
Albion
Anno
Names of Estates.
Belle Isle
Chamanel
Gros Cailloux
Mecque and Médine
Magenta
Mon Désir
Mon Repos..
La Retraite..
Belle Vue and Rivière Dragon
Rivière Moire
Tamarin
Walhala
Wolmar
Yerman
Total
:::::::::
::::
!!!!!!!!!!!!:::
1868.
1869.
1870.
Civil Status
Returns.
Stipendiary
Magistrate.
Medical
Inspector.
Civil Status
Returns
Stipendiary Magistrate.
Inspector. Medical
Civil Status
Returns.
Stipendiary
Magistrate.
Medical
ŠøŠŠ ២ œ ហង ស – ៥
Inspector.
28
17
15
14
12
6
14
3
2
5
3
1
4
1
5
2
4
3
13
12
5
5
24
19
19
16
20
15
18
8
9
6
2
19
13
4
3
12
10
8
2
3
2
2
2
25
20
20
4
41
28
29
10
20
14
24
6
7
12
8
9
1
20
16
22
17
10
42
3
5
1
1
6
281
193
43*
188
126
91
110
72
73
No. 21.
Governor the Hon. Sir A. Gordon to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received December 18.) (No. 197.) My Lord,
Mauritius, November 17, 1871.
IN my despatch No. 138 of the 21st September I mentioned that a Petition had been presented to me signed by between 9,000 and 10,000 old Indian immigrants praying for the relaxation of the laws relating to them, and complaining of certain vexatious proceedings on the part of the police.
I added that this petition would be considered by a Commission to which certain other police matters had been referred.
2. On my return from Seychelles I found that this Petition had been printed and -circulated, and that appended to it were certain remarks and observations on the Petition and on the Labour Laws generally, to which the name of Adolphe de Plevitz was subscribed. Of this pamphlet I now forward a copy to your Lordship.
3. M. de Plevitz is a member of a German family, born at Paris, who came to this island about twelve years since, and was for some time in the service of the Colonial Government as a forest ranger. He now owns a small landed property.
His pamphlet contains a good deal of exaggeration, many inaccuracies, and some statements absolutely erroneous, but, on the whole, its tone is not so immoderate as that of many similar publications, and some of the assertions it contains cannot, I think, be denied with truth.
4 Such as it is, however, it has excited the utmost alarm and indignation among the planting interest; and the newspapers, French and English alike, clamorously demanded the prosecution of the pamphlet for libel and the expulsion of M. de Plevitz from the Colony. I enclose a few amusing specimens of their style of argument.
5. After a time I learnt from the police that a meeting, composed of persons in highly respectable positions, had been held, at which it was determined that M. de Plovitz should be assaulted by a succession of Creoles, and lots were drawn as to who should strike the first blow. The lot fell on a M. Jules Lavoquer, and accordingly
• These figures are for the second half of 1868; as medical inspections were made in the first and second quers of 1868.
57
that gentleman, surrounded by a large number of his friends and confederates, laid wait for M. de Plevitz and beat him.
6. Both M. Lavoquer and M. de Plevitz were arrested and taken to the police office, and a charge of creating a disturbance entered against both. The hearing of the case was adjourned for some days. Meanwhile M de Plevitz went into town to post a letter, and was again set upon and assaulted, the chief inciter in the affair being, on this occasion, M. Merven, the son of a gentleman who made himself conspicuous in the expulsion of M. J. Jeremie from the Colony in 1831 on the account of the opinions expressed by that gentleman unfavourable to slavery.
7. No action was taken by the police; and encouraged by the apparent impunity of their proceedings, another meeting was held at which it was resolved that, on the day on which the case was to be heard, a hired mob should pelt and overturn M. de Plevitz' carriage as he came into town, on his way to the police court, and give him another beating, whilst any attempt on the part of the police to interfere was to be resisted.
8. It seemed to me that the toleration of such scenes was scandalous, and might prove very dangerous, and I wrote to the Procureur-General to express that opinion. I was gratified to learn in reply that, after the second assault I have mentioned, he had already directed the police to withdraw the double charge against Lavoquer and de Plevitz for creating a disturbance (for which so far as the latter was concerned there was not the least foundation), and to prefer a charge against Lavoquer alone for an assault with premeditation and lying in wait, a decision which met with my entire approval.
9. This proceeding, however, gave rise to a strong burst of newspaper fury, and to some popular excitement. A Petition, which for the credit of the Island I am sorry to say was signed by more than 900 persons, was presented to me, praying that I would immediately expel M. de Plevitz from the Colony; the lawyer who had undertaken to appear for the prosecution, was compelled, by pressure and intimidation, to give up the conduct of the case; and the strongest appeals were made to me through the press to direct the discontinuance of the prosecution of M. Lavoquer on the part of the police, under the threat of fresh disturbances and personal insult. I need hardly say that I took no notice of these ebullitions, and M. Lavoquer was duly convicted and sentenced to a fine which was immediately paid by subscription, and M. Lavoquer formally re-presented with the stick with which M. de Plevitz had been struck, adorned with an inscription of which I enclose a copy, and which painfully reminded me of certain well known proceedings in South Carolina some fifteen years ago.
10. Had these demonstrations been permitted to proceed unchecked, much public mischief might have ensued. As it is, it has been made perfectly clear that the law will be rigidly enforced without any regard to the threat of being "flétri par l'impopularité." There has not, since, been the slightest disturbance; and I am convinced that they will not occur.
11. Since these proceedings, a member of the Council of Government has put a question to me, as to whether I intended to take any steps to prevent the "falsehoods and calumnics" of Mr. de Plevitz exercising any injurious effect in India.
The question was not altogether an easy one to answer, for though very willing to express my belief in the general good treatment of the immigrants, nothing would induce me to make positive and formal statements as to facts, with respect to which my information is under the present defective system of inspection and returns necessarily so imperfect, whilst a few of M. de Plevitz' statements (especially that an unscrupulous proprietor might pay very nearly what he chose as wages) appear to me to be perfectly well founded, though I have no wish, without necessity, publicly to say so. 12. I enclose a report of the speech I made in answer to M. Naz, and I hope your Lordship will approve of the manuer in which I endeavoured to meet the difficulty thus created.
13. My speech was very well received by the members of Council, and has, I hear also, produced a favourable impression out of doors.
14. Whilst returning the most courteous and conciliatory answer to M. Nas, I thought it right to give a decided and severe rebuke to the authors of the Petition
Of this also, & which had been made for the arbitrary expulsion of M. de Plovitz.
well as of the Petition itself, I enclose a copy.
The Petition is numerously signed, but it does not bear the signature of a single Member of Council, but few of those of the leading planters, although it has been signed by large numbers of persons connected with the planting interest.
18. I have thought these proceedings worth reporting to your Lordship for two reasons: in the first place, they show forcibly the difficulties which would attend the
Q [160]
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.