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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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If this was true when written, it is doubly so now, since the labours introduced by Sir Henry Barkly have wholly deprived the poor Indian immigrant, even when he has completed his engagement, of the rights of citizenship, have almost put him without the pale of humanity, and reduced him to the position of a Helot.

To return to the manner in which the wages are paid. On pay day the labourer is informed, it may be, that two, three, four rupees have been deducted from his wages on account of absences or unfinished tasks six or seven weeks before; he denies having been absent or having left his task unfinished, and appeals to the magistrate, being lucky if, on his way to obtain a summons, he is not arrested and lodged in prison for want of a “ pass from his master. When the case comes on, the master brings his book, which is attested by one of his employés, and the labourer loses his case as a matter of course, since it is never possible for him to bring evidence that will be allowed to outweigh the attested register.

The magistrates are nearly all Creoles, and more or less directly interested in the sugar plantations, besides that they are usually on terms of intimacy with the planters, perhaps related to them: add to this the Indian's ignorance of the language, his want of means, the influence which his master derives from his almost unlimited power over those who could bear witness for the labourer, and the abject state to which even old immigrants are reduced by the labour laws, and no one will suppose it possible that immigrants should obtain justice; if indeed it is not an absurdity to speak of justice in connection with old immigrants placed at the discretion of the police by regulations from which other men are exempt.

The new labour law is stated to be for the prevention of vagrancy, but such is not the case; the old immigrants, whom alone it specially affects, are those who supply nearly all the labour in the Colony, outside the sugar estates. There are of course some vagrants among them, as there will be in any country, but generally they are a most industrious class of men from whom the lower classes of Creoles would do well to take an example.

To this sometimes even the press inadvertently bears witness. Thus, in the leading article of the "Commercial Gazette," August 2, 1871, ita theme being the improvi dence of some of the Creole population, we find these words "The Indian is stimulated to industry by love of money, he forms an idea in his mind of the pleasure and the advantage it will procure. The thrifty and the economical Chinaman also gets comparatively rich in his little shop. Neither one nor the other working on his own account thinks of passing days in idleness, but the Creole fishermen," &c.

The object of the new labour law is in truth very different. The planters have had to pay the passage and other expenses attending the introduction of the immigrants engaged on their estates; and as these complete their five years of service and become old immigrants, the planters must in the natural course pay for the introduction of others, or give higher wages to the old immigrants, who by their five years' experience have become better workmen. When they got a Governor like Sir Henry Barkly, who would hob-nob with them and do much to acquire the ephemeral popularity of which they, being in force in the Legislative Council, are the dispensers, they did not fail to perceive that, if old immigrants could be compelled to re-engage on the old terms, it would be the immediate means of diminishing their expenses, and putting money in their pockets. To effect this the new labour laws were devised, by which as shown in their petition, an old immigrant's life is rendered so miserable, that the vast majority of them are driven in despair to re-engage on the masters' own terms. This and no other is the real object of the new labour law, it was with this object in view that Sir Henry Barkly, by the mischievous power often given to the Governors to make regulations on their own authority, raised the price of a license to work as a day labourer, a license, be it observed, required only by old immigrants, from 4. to 11. sterling. Imagine a labouring man in England obliged to pay nearly two months' wages, at the current rate, before he dare begin to work, on pain of being sent to prison as a vagabond. What is this but the grossest oppression of Her Majesty's Indian subjects, as well as a fraud upon some 200,000 of them, who came to Mauritius in ignorance of these laws, and, in fact, before they were in existence ?

The hypocritical defence for all this tyranny and oppression, set forth by interested persons, assented to by the indifferent and unthinking, and upheld by the newspapers, which count very few Indians among their subscribers, but all the planting interest, is that the Indians are like children, incapable of taking care of themselves, and require a paternal government having arbitrary authority, and exercising it benevolently to promote the welfare of its children.

They have made the Government arbitrary enough, but how far it is paternal the

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facts of the petition show. We see that the old immigrants have hardly a soul to call their own, and it will scarcely excite surprise, when it is stated that suicides among them are of extraordinary frequency, there having been last year no less than 59 against 8 among creoles, Chinese and Europeans together, or more than five times the suicide rate in the Madras Presidency according to the Returns for 1868-69.

Nor does the reality at all justify the frequent statements in praise of the medical care here bestowed on immigrants, of which the utmost is made, presumably with a design to dazzle the eyes of the Indian Government, and prevent them from looking any farther; every proprietor being required by law to have hospital accommodation according to the number of labourers on the estate, and to pay a duly qualified practitioner 4. per head per annum for his attendance. It is to be hoped that this law with voluminous details is observed, but it is strange that although there are 217 sugar estates in Mauritius, one never hears of any of the proprietors being fined for contraven- ing it. There are, however, some laws made that are never expected to be executed, while others are enforced with the utmost rigour.

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Dr. O. Beaugeard, in his Report on the Civil Hospital for 1870, says: “La très grande proportion de la mortalité parmi les Indiens peut être attribuée à ce que lorsqu'ils entrent à l'Hôpital, leur constitution physique est plus ou moins ébranlée par la cachexie paludéenne, qui se développe chez eux à la suite d'accès répétés de fièvre paludéenne, que les soins médicaux leur ont manqué complètement, ou que ceux qu'ils ont reçus étaient insuffisants, et surtout au manque de nourriture ou d'aliments convenables." From this same Report it appears that the average per 1,000 of fatal cases among the Europeans was 18:4, among Creoles 66-6, and among the Indians 158.6.

I think it will be allowed by all who consider the case, that where a class are deprived by law of their personal liberty, as are the old immigrants, that class must necessarily fail to obtain justice as against the free part of the community. An exception will perhaps best prove the rule here. I copy from the Commercial Gazette of May 10, 1871:-

"Ramsahaye and others v. De Chalain. This was an appeal from two judgments of the Stipendiary Magistrate of Flacq, whereby he condemned the Appellants to pay i fine of 5 dollars each and to lose a month's wages. It appears that the Appellants considered that the task-work given them by their master was too heavy and complained to the Magistrate of the fact. On the other hand their master complained of them for not completing their task. In the first place the Magistrate held that the task was reasonable and dismissed the complaint, and fined each of the Appellants 11. for having brought it. In the second the Magistrate decided their master's complaint was well founded and condemned the Appellants, thirty-nine in number, to forfeit one month's wages each.”

not.

"His Honour, in giving judgment, reviewed in detail the facts of the case. He remarked that the Magistrate had not used the powers given him under Ordinance 31 of 1871, Article 23, that is, he had not ordered an "expertise," which in his Honour's opinion was a more satisfactory manner of deciding this question than by hearing the evidence of parties interested, or their friends. He observed also that the evidence showed that the men were "hommes d'élite," and that they behaved well during nearly five years, and therefore to fine them so heavily prima facie seemed rather hard. The real point at issue in this case was to know whether a given task was reasonable or And for this purpose the Appellants had thought fit to apply to the Magistrate under the Ordinance above cited, and if they were wrong he might have condemned them to the cost of the "expertise," but no more. If Indians were discouraged by penalties from appealing to the law, when they thought that they had a grievance, they might have recourse, with a view to obtain redress, to other measures less advan- tageous to the master or the peace of the community. He, the Honourable Gorrie, held that, under the circumstances of the case, it was not competent to the Magistrate to order the fine or the forfeiture of a month's wages, and therefore he quashed both judgments, with costs against the Respondent."

Here then we have an instance of the result of complaints of Indian labourers against their employers, and may consider whether the inimigrants are not likely to submit to almost any oppression rather than complain to a Magistrate. In this case the appellants were thirty-nine in number, “hommes d'élite,” and during nearly five years had been enabled to save sufficient money among them to bring their appeal. These are exceptional circumstances, and immigrants generally must abide by the decision of the Magistrate, whether right or wrong.

The facility with which planters got their labourers condemned contrasts strangely