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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LTTICO.

882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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No. 3.

March 8.)

Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberley —(Received ·

(No. 59. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

of the

Mauritius, February 7, 1872. IN compliance with the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch No. 216 December, I have called upon the Protector of Immigrants for an explanation of the discontinuance of his visits of inspection to the sugar estates of the island.

2. I have the houour to inclose the copy of a letter which I have received from Mr. Beyts in reply to this request.

3. I must add that it appears to me that the Government of the Island in committing to Mr. Beyts the performance of important and onerous duties wholly extraneous to the business of his office, and necessarily taking up a large part of his time, is at least equally responsible with Mr. Beyts for the discontinuance of these inspections.

4. In 1867 Mr. Beyts was deputed to inquire into the working of the district and stipendiary Courts with a view to their amalgamation. In 1868 he was directed to report on the operation of the Civil Status Laws, and to report on the changes which they required. From 1868-72 Mr. Beyts has been President of Poor Law Board, and during the first three years had everything to organize and set in motion, a work of great labour. In 1871 he was appointed Census Commissioner for the Colony, and the preparation of the elaborate Report and returns to day forwarded to your Lordship has necessarily consumed much time.

Sir,

I have, &c. (Signed)

Inclosure in No. 3.

ARTHUR GORDON.

Friday morning.

IN reference to inspections of estates I respectfully beg to call your Excellency's attention to the fact that the regulations which required the Protector to inspect every estate once a year (Regulation under Ordinance 10 of 1862) were expressly repealed by those which were passed by the Governor in Executive Council under Ordinance 31 of 1867.

Seeing that in the interval a law had been brought into operation appointing medical inspectors entrusted with the duty of making quarterly visits to all the estates, I was naturally induced to believe that the repeal of the regulations under Ordinance 16 of 1862 signifled that the visits of the medical inspectors, superadded to those of the magistrates, were held by the Executive to be sufficient, and that it was no longer deemed necessary that I should perform a thorough tour of inspection every year.

I was confirmed in that belief by the numerous duties, foreign to the Immigration Department, which were since entrusted to me, and of which I sent your Excellency a recapitulation yesterday.

Whether the inspections so regulated were really effective or not, and what should be done to make them so, if they are not, are not points for me to discuss, at least, not in this letter, for troubling you with which I hope I shall be excused.

Safe as I felt my defence to be in your Excellency's hands, I thought it right to bring to your notice the repeal of regulations to which I have referred.

No. 4.

March 8.)

Yours, &c.

(Signed) H. N. D. BEYTS.

Governor the Hon. Sir A. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received

(No. 66. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

Mauritius, February 9, 1872.

I HAVE the honour to inclose the copy of a report which I have only this morning received from the District and Stipendiary Magistrate of Savanne, Mr. Daly, of certain cases Intely tried before his Court.

2. It is impossible for me at this hour to discuss that Report in detail. It well

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merits your Lordship's attention and that of Her Majesty's Land and Emigration Commissioners.

8. These proceedings establish beyond a doubt, and on the admission of the parties themselves, that the medical attendants on estates in that district have habitually neglected the duties required of them by law, and have endeavoured to conceal that neglect by deliberate falsification of the hospital registers. I would call your Lordship's special attention to Dr. Tyack's admission that, as regarded more than one estate, he had for two years never visited it at all, or treated patients from it elsewhere, but that the book was sent down to him on a neighbouring estate, and that he filled up the register with the names of men who had no existence.

4. Dr. Tyack appears unconscious that any blame attaches to proceedings of this description, for he avows boldly-"I did not sign the certificate because all my registers contain false entries.

I looked on the law as impracticable and a farce, and

made fictitious entries to fulfil its letter."

Nay, he goes on to say that the law was notoriously never intended to be enforced, and was merely framed to satisfy the Indian Government lest a stop should be put to Indian emigration. This statement, I hope, we may believe to be calumny as far as the mass of the planters are concerned, as it certainly is so far as regards my prede- cessor and the officers of his Government, who would justly repudiate with indigna- tion what amounts to a charge of having framed a delusive statute, for the purpose of hoodwinking the Indian Government and that of Her Majesty. The assertion is, nevertheless, worthy of note, not because any credit is to be attached to it, but because it is evidence of the existence of a not unusual though mistaken and, I believe, ground- less feeling on this subject.

6. It is manifest that the Medical Inspector of the district, if he did not connive at these proceedings, must have conducted his inspections with the grossest care- lessness; and it is my intention to call him before the Executive Council to answer for the negligence with which his duties have been performed. I hope by the next mail to forward Mr. Daly's elaborate Report of his inspection, which was the means of bringing to light these and many other irregularities.

Sir,

I have, &c. (Signed)

Inclosure 1 in No. 4.

ARTHUR GORDON,

Souillac, District of Savanne, February 8, 1872. I HAVE the honour to report, for his Excellency's information, that the proceed- ings recently brought before me respecting the violations of the Medical Ordinance by doctors attending estates in this district were closed this day.

I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of three specimen information's, showing the nature of the charges laid, of the evidence and proceedings, and of my judgment upon the whole case.

I think these documents will clearly expose the nature and extent of the irregu- larities of the doctors themselves; but it is my duty to point out that, from the whole tone as well as the substance of the evidence of planters themselves, much irregularity has been not only concealed by that class, but has actually arisen from their indif- ferent manner of regarding their duties and responsibilities in respect of the care of the sick.

I will soon have another opportunity of drawing your Excellency's attention to such matters on this point of estate management as I have myself observed in the course of my recent inspection, of which I am preparing a special Report. I now think it necessary to remark only upon the result of the recent cases tried. Some of the most important conclusions I draw from the evidence are the following :-

1st. There has existed, and still exists, at least in this district, a constant evasion of the spirit and intention of the Ordinance 29 of 1865, which provides for the medical care and hospital treatment of sick Indian immigrants. In proof of this I refer to the evidence of nearly all the witnesses at the recent trials, who state, in effect, that they do not perceive the necessity or importance of the law; that they do not follow it; that the hospitals are not really used as hospitals at all; that often they are closed; that men never stay there at night, and women never at any time. That the doctor does not even see it usually; but, when present on the estate, only prescribes for patients after an inspection at the mill or office. That in no instance, in spite of all the long-continued irregularities brought to light in those cases, has the planter or