CO882-(2-3) — Page 336

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TUTTIC.O.

- 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

68

this request I certainly declined to comply, on the ground that it was impossible for me to refute allegations as to matters of fact, susceptible of proof or disproof, without previous careful inquiry, and that such inquiry, if undertaken at all, should only be undertaken by persons unconnected with the Colony, and appointed by the Crown.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

Inclosure 1 in No. 20.

ARTHUR GORDON.

Port Louis, Mauritius, March 21, 1872.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for the

Colonics, &c., &c., &c.

May it please your Lordship,

THE Undersigned have been commissioned by the Chamber of Agriculture of Mauritius,

Respectfully to transmit to you the annexed printed copy of Resolutions adopted by it on the 18th instant, and to solicit your Lordship's favourable considera- tion for them, and especially and earnestly to pray that your Lordship will suspend all such fundamental and serious changes in the Immigration and Labour Laws of this Colony as are now brought forward by his Excellency the Governor, until the Commis- sion which you have been pleased to appoint may be able to inquire and report to your Lordship as to their immediate urgency or future necessity in principle and detail.

And they have the honour, &c.

(Signed)

J. CURRIE, President,

E. ELIAS, Vice-President, EDWARD HART, Treasurer,

Of the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture.

Inclosure 2 in No. 20.

Resolutions adopted by the Chamber of Agriculture of Mauritius, at its Meeting of

March 18, 1872.

The Chamber of Agriculture, having read the letter addressed to it by the Honour- able the Colonial Secretary on the 7th instant, announcing the nomination of a Royal Commission of Inquiry about to be sent to Mauritius; and also having carefully con- sidered the despatches of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State of 16th of December, 1871, and 19th January, 1872, and the Memoranda of his Excellency the Governor, for the information of the Secretary of State, dated 18th August and 21st September, 1871, as laid before the Council of Government on the 12th instant.

Resolves

That the Chamber feels great regret that his Excellency did not see reason to make the decision of Her Majesty's Government to name a Royal Commission, in com- pliance with the conditional prayer of the Chamber, for the purpose of "inquiring into the truth of the allegations made" against the Colony, "and into all details con- nected with Indian Immigration," publicly known before the departure of the last monthly mail, and at being thus deprived of the earliest opportunity of expressing its gratitude at this decision.

That the Chamber, after reading his Excellency's Memoranda above cited, and seeing the unfavourable comparisons between the laws and regulations of Mauritius and those of the West Indies, of which they are full, cannot but find less reason to be surprised at his Excellency's having declined to satisfy Her Majesty's Government as to the degree of authority to be attached to the pamphlet of M. de Plevitz.

That the Chamber thinks it can be shown that the introduction now of the modes

of action of which his Excellency has been seeking the sanction, would be productive of consequences to this Colony which Her Majesty's Government might not consider compensated by the mere attainment of uniformity of system between places differing so essentially in many respects as Mauritius and the West Indies.

69

That the Chamber has no need, nor desire, to deny the common place truth, that there is room for improvement in the laws and customs here, as in all laws and customs.

That it cheerfully admits that changes in some respects, in the direction indicated by the Secretary of State, might, if on more ample and unprejudiced information, Her Majesty's Government still thought them necessary, be introduced on the recommenda- tion of fair-minded Commissioners or other authorities enjoying the confidence of all classon, without serious or more than temporary inconvenience and loss, and perhaps with ultimate advantage to the stability of all interests.

That, nevertheless, it cannot but think that some of the innovations, apparently still to be at once advocated by his Fxcellency, perhaps beyond, and against, the opinions expressed by the Secretary of State, are to be deprecated, although they would exonerate the planters from direct heavy charges, and might be willingly accepted by them if they could consider themselves honestly relieved thereby from the moral responsibility for the well-being and care of their people.

That others of the changes now in question, while serving no useful or necessary purpose not attainable by other now existing means, would initiate a system of arbitrary and discretionary interference by Government between parties, both of whom here per- fectly know their rights, and how, and when to defend them, before impartial judicial officers, appealable summarily to the Judges of the Supreme Court named by Her Majesty, and responsible, besides, to the local and Imperial Governments; there would thereby be substituted direct irritation, discontent and hatred towards the Government itself, for the acquiescence which follows on public judicial trial and sentence.

That these facts and considerations make the Chamber more anxious to see a full and impartial inquiry into all the question, and at the same time, notwithstanding its desire to conform in every respect to the deliberate and well understood views of Her Majesty's Government, to deprecate premature and hasty legislation here, in anticipa- tion of the arrival of the Commissioners, and the additional difficulties and mischief which might arise from such.

That, with the knowledge now before it, the Chamber cannot avoid expressing its fear that remonstrance against the principle, or discussion of the details, of proposals originated like those now in question, would be without avail to change any determi- nation come to here, though to press such at present on the reluctant public and Legis- ture would only tend needlessly to produce irritation on all sides, and perhaps prepare greater excitement against the arrival of the Royal Commissioners.

That, if there be, as the Secretary of State has thought possible, reason to appre hend such excitement, it can only be prolonged and augmented by discussions and debates now on questions which the Chamber, reading his Lordship's despatches, cannot help seeing must, in any case, be gone over again before the Commissioners.

That the Chamber, therefore, would respectfully and urgently pray his Excellency the Governor in Council, in deference to the plain and obvious meaning of the words of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State's despatch of 19th January, 1872, to delay entering on the consideration of the changes mentioned in his despatch of 16th December, till the inquiry of the Commission shall have taken place, and "have fully answered the twofold purpose of" enabling him "to determine what has in fact been the condition of the immigrants in the past, and what should be the policy and legista- tion of the future."

That such impartial inquiry, publicly carried on in presence of those concerned, seems now the only means of correcting the picture which had been sent abroad of the state of things here between employers and labourers; and the Chamber sees, with extreme regret, his Excellency adding touches to it, drawn from an incident, on the face of it, at the worst, and well known here to have been a mere ebullition of pro- fessional pique-and from some cases of negligence or wrong, for all of which the Chamber and the agricultural body leaves the onus of levity, or worse, entirely on their authora.

That the Chamber notices, with the same regret, that his Excellency has dwelt to the Secretary of State on one case of the loss of arrear-wages by Indian labourers in 1801, and had not felt himself enabled, at the same time, to point out, for his Lord. ship's information, that the law had been altered, and that no such case can now occur; and that even in the instance cited, greater diligence would have prevented the loss.

That the Chamber has also to express its regret that these and other circumstances, which give no correct expression of the practical value and of the application of the laws and regulations now in force here, appear to have been presented in a way that has led to their being believed to be of possible general and frequent occurrence; and venture

[134]