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No. 2.

Gore nor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received

(No. 55. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

March 8.)

Mauritius, February 9, 1872.

IN another despatch, No. 50 of this day's date, I have explained the reasons which have induced me for the moment to delay the submission to the Council of Government of your Lordship's despatch No. 216 of the 16th December last, and have expressed the satisfaction felt by me at the general agreement between your Lordship's views and my own with respect to the subjects of which that despatch treats. A few additional observations bearing upon the different points therein dealt with will not however, I think, be out of place, and will not, I trust, prove unacceptable.

2. I agree with your Lordship in thinking that there is no necessity for limiting the period within which requisitions may be sent in for immigrants. As a matter of statistical convenience it might be attended with some advantage, but I am not aware that any other object would be gained by it.

3. I agree also that there is no reason for altering the present system of engage ments in India. I thought it right to point out that a difference did, in fact, exist between it and that pursued in respect to engagements for the West Indian Colonies, but I made no recommendation as to its alteration.

4. Nor, although I think the rationing system is here carried too far, do I think its modification by any means one of those points which most immediately require attention; I may, however, observe that your Lordship is mistaken in supposing that the supply of labour procurable in India for Mauritius at the present rate of wages is by any means "plentiful," on the contrary, every letter from the Immigration Agents of the Colony at Calcutta and Madras, reiterates the statement of the extreme difficulty which exists in procuring labourers for this island, as is shown by the extracta appended to this despatch. They point out forcibly enough that if they adhere merely to legitimate offers the Coolie seeking his own interest will hardly consent to accept low wages in Mauritius with no return passage, when the West Indian Colonies offer high wages and a return passage. This question has been repeatedly brought before the Immigration Committee of Council, and it is worthy of remark that the first remedy which suggested itself to the Committee was, that your Lordship should be asked to procure the prohibition of more advantageous terms than those offered by Mauritius! When the absurdity of this course was pointed out, the Committee resolved to recommend an increase in the pay, and not of the Coolies imported, but of the recruiters in India, offering a higher bounty per head for each man so recruited. The objections to this course is obvious.

5. To return, however, to the system of rationing. I think it has been carried too far, because, whilst admitting the great benefits which result from it when well administered during the earlier years of industrial residence, it is still always liable to misuse, and whilst, as a matter of fact, non-delivery or insufficient delivery of rations is one of the grievances of which immigrants most generally and loudly complain, it is one which is almost wholly unsusceptible of proof, as the food given, whether sufficient or insufficient, is usually eaten, and the case dismissed by the Magistrate for want of evidence. In fact convictions are so rare that formal com. plaints to the Magistrate on this head are now seldom made.

6. I think, too, that after a time, more independence of character is fostered by payment in money wages, and that if this payment, as in Jamaica and Trinidad, is made conditional on the labourer carning a certain amount, it note at once as both a stimulus and reward to industry. In this view I am confirmed by the strongly expressed concurrence of the authorities so competent to speak as Sir John Peter Grant, the Guiana Commission, and the Agent-General of Immigrants in Trinidad, an officer whose unassuming character has, I think, caused the great ability and success with which he has for twenty years managed the immigration system in that Island to be hardly recognized in their full proportions. But at the same time, whilst advocating such a change, at least as regards immigrants after their first five years of indenture, if it could be easily accomplished, I do not think it would be at all worth while to press it at the risk of endangering the success of the more important alterations proposed; and your Lordship will accordingly find that it is not one of the six recommendations contained in my deepatah No. 188 of the 21st September.

7. I am glad to perceive that your Lordship agrees with me in thinking that re-engagements should not be permitted until after the expiration of the previous

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engagement. In attempting to give effect to this view, I know I shall have the support of some of the more liberally minded among the planters themselves, but I am also aware that I shall encounter determined, and, it may be, successful opposition.

8. Your Lordship's observations with respect to the power of the Governor in Executive Council to frame regulations as to "houses, &c., are perfectly just, and, in theory, there is nothing to be desired. Whether the Executive Council, as now constituted, would be willing to adopt regulations, a compliance with which might involve expense to the planters, and which would, consequently, be distasteful to them, and which might be objected to by the Chambers of Agriculture and Commerce, is, I think, doubtful; but the experiment shall be made in conformity with your Lordship's instructions.

9. Your Lordship requests an explanation of the fact that the great majority of the hospitals are, in the Report of the Protector of Immigrants, stated to be "good or "very good," whilst the observations made in my despatch No. 185 of the 21st September would lead your Lordship to suppose them to be in need of general and

radical reform.

10. That explanation is easily afforded. The classification made in the Protector's Report is confessedly only an abstract of the returns made by the Stipendiary Magistrates. I have already explained to your Lordship how imperfectly the inspec tions of these officers when made are conducted, and, as a rule, the "goodness" of the camp and hospital are, I imagine, assumed as a matter of course without much inquiry.

As a specimen of the manner in which these returns of inspection are made, I inclose one of the last received, that for the district of Rivière du Rempart :-

It is also very possible that the Magistrates, and perhaps the Protector also, entertain different notions from myself as to what constitutes "goodness" in a hospital. What judged by a West Indian standard would be exceedingly bad, may, according to the prevalent custom of this island, be reckoned fair enough. I think that in one of my previous despatches (No. 138), I have mentioned that I found an hospital which appeared to me wanting in every necessary appliance, described in the Medical Inspector's return as "perfect."

11. The disclosures made before the Stipendiary Court of Savanne, to which in another despatch I more particularly refer, and which appear to show that medical attendance on estates in that district has been habitually neglected, and such neglect concealed by habitual falsification of the estate's records, will, I think, render the appointment of Government medical officers of estates comparatively easy.

12. I have already explained to your Lordship the steps taken by me to provide for a more efficient inspection of estates; and, I believe, the Ordinance which I have to-day the honour of submitting for Her Majesty's gracious confirmation, will satis- factorily effect the desired object. The cessation of the Protector's visits to estates forms the subject of a separate Report.

13. I entirely concur with your Lordship in thinking that the "absence from the Immigration Law of this Colony, of any provision by which immigrants may be removed from estates which are unhealthy, or where they have been ill-used, is a serious defeet, and should be amended;" but I fear that this is one of the points on which it will be most difficult to obtain the consent of the Council to any change in the existing system.

14. I will not now enter at length upon the subject of the restrictions imposed upon old immigrants, or the severity of the laws with respect to vagrancy. On these subjects I shall have to treat at large when I forward to your Lordship the Report of the Commission, to which I have more than once referred, and which is, I understand, on the point of terminating its labours. Meanwhile I may observe, that it is not to the stringency, but to the partiality, of these laws, that I object. I cannot see any rational cause for placing restraints upon the Indian portion of the population, from which the general population are free, when it is shown by statistics that the number of unem- ployed persons among the general population is proportionately greater than among Indians. The only supposition which renders such a course explicable is, that along with the wish to effect the suppression of vagrancy, a desire existed to facilitate the supply of a larger amount of labour to the sugar estates.

15. The re-establishment of the right to a return passage to India (after, say ten year's residence) will, I hope and believe, be recommended by this Commission, and not objected to seriously by the Immigration Committee.

18. Of the six recommendations made at the elone of my despatch No. 188, five With respect to the have been so fortunate as to obtain your Lordship's concurrence.