CO882-(3-4) — Page 595

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

CO. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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majority of the people, but they undoubtedly form the large majority of those who may be expected to come forward and express an opinion. The beat proof is that though the senior unofficial member of Council with his great position had raised the banner of opposition, very few rallied round him, and the dissenting letter to the Secretary of State, now before us, only bears 99 signatures, 90 of which have not even been printed. If any important section of the community had really dissented from the reform movement, they would certainly have made some counter movement.

I have been lately reading again in the Blue Books the petitions by which the several Australasian Colonies and others prayed for representative institutions, and not one of them bears so many signatures as that of the Mauritians.

In the paragraph, following (3), the Lieutenant-Governor proceeds to say that the planter, the English or Scotch merchant, the Creole gentleman, the official, the shop- keeper, or employé, the Arab merchant, the Chinese retailer, may each epeak for his own class, but that none of them is entitled to speak for the inhabitants of this Colony, that none of them represents the descendants of the slaves of former times, or the 111,000 men of Indian race now living in Mauritius.

His Honour, the Commander of the Forces, has repeated the same argument, that all the different classes would not be represented by the elected members proposed.

But a perfect theoretical representation of all classes could only be expected from an election by universal suffrage. The House of Commons, up to 1832, is inseparably connected with the progress and the greatness of the British Empire. Its services are radiating through several centuries of British history. But its members did not certainly represent every one of the classes of the whole nation, and, according to the theory of the Lieutenant-Governor, they were not entitled to speak in the name of the whole inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland. The statistics made before the Reform Bill, clearly prove that the then House of Commons represented a much smaller proportion of the people than the proportion which would be directly represented in Mauritius under the Constitution prayed for.

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It is curious that the Lieutenant-Governor and the senior unofficial member should come to so very different conclusions as to result of elections under the qualfications proposed by the petitioners. The latter recoils before the rising Asiatic wave which he believes to be pressing on us from every quarter, and declares that even with a property qualification of 5,000 rupees, the Creoles would sign their abdication and bow under the political supremacy of the Indian immigrants. The former "is con- "vinced that the first effect of the franchise would be quite in another direction, namely, to place the Government of the Colony in the hands of an oligarchy of planters, merchants, lawyers, and journalists. Indians, however, would gradually make their way to the electoral roll, and one evil would then in some time give place to another." These conclusions are both clearly exaggerated. The educated classes would un- doubtedly have a fair majority of the votes for some years to come, but the Indians would certainly, from the first, possess a sufficient number of votes to make their influence directly felt. If they could not return their own candidate, they could by voting for one out of two or more candidates, secure his return, and the importance of winning their votes would, irrespective of higher impulses and considerations, induce the elected members to act fairly and impartially towards them.

With the progress of wealth and education, they would, as the Lieutenant-Governor says, gradually increase in numbers on the electoral roll, but this need not necessarily be an evil replacing another.

With the teachings of British history, I do not admit that the careful and gradual admission of the people to the exercise of the franchise is the abdication of the more enlightened classes. Since 1832, the electoral qualifications in Great Britain have been several times lowered, and I do not see that the best men have been excluded from government. Some of the great families, which, during part of the last century, had to some extent a monopoly of high offices, have had to share their powers with others, but their descendants still preserve their legitimate influence and still shine amongst the distinguished British statesmen.

In all countries not infested by socialism, electors, as a rule, choose the best candi- date, and are proud of a distinguished representative. Mauritius is not an exception; the municipal electors almost invariably elect the best men who come forward.

If the leading men in Mauritius will understand the true spirit of the age, if they show proper sympathy and care for the interests and the feelings of all classes, if they foster education, and properly direct the current of progress, they will continue to

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enjoy in their country, a proud position strengthened by the confidence and by the support of the people; and when, with the progress of education, the children of the present lower classes will have become capable and worthy of taking their seats in the councils of the Colony, these will be welcomed by their colleagues, and their election will be an advantage and not an evil.

But, meanwhile, it is precisely because some of the present classes would not be directly or sufficiently represented by the elected members, that the petitioners have asked, and that I propose that only one-third of the members of the Council be elected, and that the Crown should appoint two-thirds of the members. If the elected members should not act and vote impartially (which we have no right to suspect) it would be the duty of your Excellency as the representative of the Queen, and of the large majority of nominated members, to stand as the representatives of the threatened class or interest to act as moderators, conciliators, and umpires, between the official and the elected members.

And here let me say that Lord Derby's suggestion that future nominations of unofficial members might be made for a limited term, which perhaps might be five years, would be attended with objections much greater than its advantages. The nomination of unofficial members is only justifiable on the assumption that the people believe in their independence. Members chosen for a time could not vote with the Government without being taunted with subserviency, with the object of winning their re-election. In a mixed Council of nominated and elected members, in which their duty would be to act as moderators, conciliators, and umpires, between the official and the elected members, they would be rendered powerless; and the results described by the Lieutenant-Governor in paragraph 18 of his Despatch would become almost unavoid- able. To obviate this and as a guarantee of their independence it has been found necessary to appoint the nominated members for life or during pleasure, which is nearly the same thing, in the other Colonies.

The other alternative would be to render them ineligible.

But then there would be the objection of having members all untrained, however able; and it is not certain that Mauritius would possess a sufficient number of fit men for the selection of an entirely new batch of unofficial members every five years.

The second great objection to the increase of the non-official element is expressed by the Lieutenant-Governor (paragraph 15 of his Despatch):-If the prayer of the petitioners was granted, the Crown would no longer command its present majority and could no longer be able to force upon the Colony measures contrary to the unanimous opinions of the educated classes. According him to him the labour law of 1877 (read 1878) could not have been passed, and the Council could not be compelled to vote a heavy subsidy for some nearly useless line of mail steamer through Tamatave or Zanzibar, instead of a moderate subsidy to the Messageries Maritimes which connects us by a regular, quick and direct service with Europe and Australia, and indirectly with India, namely with the three great centres with which all our trade is carried.

First, it is not accurate, and the whole of this Board will deny that an impartial, just, and practicable labour law would not at any time be passed, with the concurrence and support of a majority of Mauritian members. I was the President of the Chamber of Agriculture in the year when the labour law was passed. I drew the observations of the chamber, and, by the confidence of my unofficial friends, I led the debate on our side at this Board, and raised most of the points on which divisions were taken. No impartial or unprejudiced mind could find in the opinions expressed by the chamber or by the unofficial members of Council, any intention to favour the employers, or to affect the just rights or the interests of the labourers. A draft ordinance was sent from home prepared by gentlemen who know much less about the real position, the real wants, and the real interests of the immigrants than the unofficial members of Council here; and experience has since proved, that if our views had been carried, they would in several cases have been more acceptable and more favourable to the Indians than some theories which by means of the official majority were forced from home. The only provision to which the Colony would not submit was the now famous Article 284 of Ordinance No. 12 of 1878, by which, as originally proposed, the Governor would have been empowered, at his sole discretion, to withdraw the whole of the labourers from an estate even against the will of those labourers, and to ruin irretrievably an estate which might have been worth one hundred thousand pounds sterling, and the innocent co- owners or creditors of that estate. Against that provision, which was as useless as it was arbitrary and contrary to all notions of justice and jurisprudence, I drew up a protest which was signed by all the unofficial members, and which the home authc- E 3