CO882-(2-3) — Page 386

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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TLC.O. 8

882

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receiving a passport to leave the Colony, pay at the rate of 11. per annum for any number of calendar months wanting to make up the time of his industrial residence."

.(Signed)

Council Chamber, June 1, 1853.

RAWSON W. RAWSON, President.

Governor Higginson to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

(No. 81.) My Lord Duke,

Mauritius, April 25, 1858. REFERRING to my despatch No. 417 of the 3rd December, 1852, forwarding a copy of a Report of the Immigration Committee of the Council of Government expressing for the prospective abolition of the grant of gratuitous return passages to Indian Immigrants upon the expiration of their industrial residence, I beg leave to transmit herewith, for your Grace's information, a copy of a correspondence which has taken place between the Governor-General of India and myself upon this subject.

2. It will be observed from the Marquis of Dalhousie's reply to my communi. cation that he has recommended the Honourable the East India Company to comply conditionally with the views of this Government and to grant a concession which has been so long and so ardently desired by the Colony. Feeling satisfied that the measure will prove alike beneficial to the interests of Mauritius and to the Immigrants themselves I have no hesitation in earnestly soliciting your Grace's powerful advocacy with the Honourable the Court of Directors in support of it.

(No. 96.) Sir,

I have, &c.

(Signed) J. M. HIGGINSON,

The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Higginson.

Downing Street, July 30, 1853.

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of 25th April last, No. 81, and in reply I have to refer you to mine of the 9th May, No. 56, by which you were informed that the Court of Directors of the East India Company had concurred in the view of the Governor-General of India, that the prospective abolition of return passages to coolie immigrants might be conceded.

I have, &c.

175

No. 50.

The Earl of Kimberley to Governor the Hon. A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G.

(No. 204.) Sir,

Downing Street, July 80, 1872. I HAVE received your despatch of the 27th June, No. 216, commenting on the protest of some of the unofficial Members of the Council of Mauritius with reference to allowing return passages to Indian immigrants, a copy of which you forwarded to me in your despatch No. 192, of the 31st May.

As I have already intimated to you, I defer expressing any opinion on the subject until I am in possession of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry.

(No. 205.) Sir,

No. 51.

I have, &c. (Signed) KIMBERLEY,

The Earl of Kimberley to Governor the Hon. A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G.

you

Downing Street, July 31, 1872. IN reply to your despatch No. 208 of the 20th ultimo, aoquainting me that had requested Mr. Mitchell, Sub-Intendant of Crown Lands in Trinidad, who is at present on a visit to Mauritius, to undertake the temporary employment of Assistant to the Protector of Immigrants.

I have to observe, that it is not generally desirable that an officer on leave of absence from one Colony, should be employed in the service of another Colony during his leave, without special sanction from the Secretary of State; but as Mr. Mitchell will have been setually discharging the temporary duties in question for some time before this despatch reaches you, I shall not object to his continuing to discharge those duties for the short period which will elapse before the termination of his leave,

I have, &c.. (Signed) KIMBERLEY.

(Signed)

NEWCASTLE.

No. 52.

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Sir,

No. 49.

Emigration Office to Colonial Office.

Emigration Board, July 26, 1872.

The

I HAVE to acknowledge your letter of 24th instant, with a despatch from Sir A. Gordon reporting that the Ordinance passed by the Legislature of Mauritius in 1870, to punish the inticing away and harbouring the wives of Indian immigrants, had proved a failure, only eight convictions having taken place out of fifty-one cases.

ilure has arisen, as I understand the Governor, from the difficulty of proving that the woman is legally the "wife" of the man from whom she is enticed away. The matter, as the Governor observes, is of considerable importance now that the Indian population forms 68 per cent. of the whole population of the Colony, and he proposes to bring it under the notice of the Commissioners of Inquiry. Under these circum- stances there is nothing to be done in the matter by the Secretary of State at present. It ought not, I think, to be impossible so to interpret the term "wife" as to include those connections which, though they might not come within the strictly legal meaning of the term, are practically connections of a sufficiently permanent character to be inverted with the attributes of marriage. And I adhere to the opinion I expressed in my Report of 31st December, 1870 (in which the Governor appears to concur), that there is no reason why the protection which the Law gives to connection with a wife, "a native of India," should not, if it is of any value, be extended also to the case of a wife a native of any other country.

I have, &c. (Signed) T. W. C. MURDOCH.

Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received September 18.) (No. 289. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

Mauritius, August 23, 1879. I HAVE duly received the letter from the Honourable Mr. Fraser, to which allusion is made in your Lordship's despatch No. 177, of the 3rd July last.

As Mr. Fraser has communicated to your Lordship a copy of that letter, I think it right now to forward a copy of my reply.

Mr. Fraser's "reasons of dissent" have been submitted by me to his colleagues on the Police Commission; and when I have received their observations upon this paper, I shall have the honour of again addressing your Lordship with respect to it.

Sir,

I have, o. (Signed) ARTHUR GORDON,

Inclosure 1 in No. 59.

Mauritius, Colonial Secretary's Office, Augnat 23, 1879.

I AM directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter to kira of the 22nd June last.

In that letter you appeal to his Excellency on the subject of the covering letter to the Report of the Police Commissioners, and the subsequent correspondence which passed between General Smyth and your representatives, "Messrs. Stein and Currie; and you deny, 1st, that you could reasonably have been expected to sign the Report

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