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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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The Procureur-General having promised to put in a return showing the cases in which the prerogative was exercised, the following questions and answers appear in the minutes of evidence :-

Q.

"As a general rule your opinion is asked?"

A. "Certainly."

Q. "Has there been any case in which the Governor has exercised the prerogative in "opposition to your recommendation ?

A. "I do not remember any."

10. The return on this subject was sent to Sir Hercules Robinson. I have not seen it since, but, as well as I remember, it shows that out of about 560 cases in which during three years and a half I remitted penalties, I called for and considered in every case the report of the committing magistrate; that, in about 520 cases, the remission was made on the recommendation of the committing magistrate, or other officer con- cerned, and that in each instance of the few remaining cases, which were all trifling contraventions, I was fully justified in using the clemency of the Crown.

11. In one of my despatches of August last to the Secretary of State, I transmitted the Report of the Protector of Immigrants for the year 1885. At page 15 that officer

says:-

"Annexure No. 20 shows the offenders convicted in 1885 in the Criminal Courts of Mauritius. There is a decrease of 158 in the convictions when compared with the previous year. I give below the following totals of this statement for the last five years

Years.

1881

1882

1883

1881

1885

Total convictions.

10,013

8,958

8,909

7,127

6,969

12. But all these facts had long since been transmitted to Downing Street. Sir Hercules Robinson's inquiry simply elicited from the Procureur General and others the same information that had been given to Lord Granville in my despatch of the 2nd of August.* Sir Hercules Robinson's conclusions that there had been no increase or crimé under my administration must have been the conclusion of anyone reading the authentic documents in Downing Street.

13. There remains, however, a question of some interest that Sir Hercules Robinson, possibly owing to his engagements elsewhere, did not investigate. If the Commissioner had a little more time at his disposal he might have inquired how was this decrease of crime to be accounted for?

14. During the last few years the population had increased; there was depression in the sugar industry, the Oriental Bank had failed, wages were reduced, the labouring classes and artizans suffered unusual distress; nevertheless crime had not increased. Was this the case elsewhere? In the neighbouring Colonies there had also been commercial and industrial distress. Had crime also decreased ?

15. Before leaving Cape Town for Mauritius, Sir Hercules Robinson sent to the Secretary of State the Blue Book of the Cape Colony for 1885, which gives the criminal returns during the five years of his administration, as follows:—

Years.

1881

1882

1883

1894

1885

Total convictions.

31,199

41,199+

43,409

44,311

47,708

16. How then is the opposite result to be accounted for in Mauritius ? Lord Kimberley, Lord Carnarvon, Lord Granville, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, and Lord Derby have written to me, and all other Governors for the last 20 years, pointing out that an essential element in bringing about a decrease of crime is to be found in a proper system of prison discipline; that a proper system of prison discipline would reduce the number of prison offences, would tend to reform the criminal classes, and lead to a general

† In 1881 some territory was annexed.

• Not printed.

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decrease of crime. On the other hand that the combination of laxity and cruelty which generally characterised a faulty system of prison management would increase offences in the prison, and teach the discharged prisoners to continue similar practices outside.

17. The following return, which was prepared by Mr. Kennedy, the careful and zealous Superintendent of Prisons in Mauritius, throws some light on the subject:-

PRISON DISCIPLINE IN MAURITIUS.

A RETURN showing the Number of Prison Offences for the period between 1880 and 1886 (November) committed in Central Prison, Port Louis, together with the Number of Floggings.

Years.

1880.

1881.

1882.

1883.

1884.

1886, 1885. up to 80th November.

Total of prisons offences 5,943 3,585 2,129 1,470 937

Total floggings

Central Prison, Mauritius, December 9, 1886.

59

14

35

11

(Signed)

547

571

I

-

!

F. W. KENNEDY, Superintendent of Prisons.

18. The decrease in prison offences shown in Mr. Kennedy's return is due to his good management, and to the watchful care with which he applies the mark system of rewards for good conduct. I substituted that useful system for the flogging and branding system I found in Hongkong, and I also brought it into force in Mauritius, In both cases with a similar result, better discipline in the prison, and a decline of crime outside.

I

19. As I have referred to the increase of crime of late years in a neighbouring Colony, mey add that the number of floggings for prison offences in that Colony amounted to 85 in the year 1884, and to 167 in the year 1885; and at page 465 of the Blue Book is a return of "Punishments inflicted by magistrates and special justices in the Cape Colony during 1884 and 1885," showing in the former year 1,791 whippings, and in the latter 2,741 whippings.

20. In spite of the beneficial results that evidently followed in Mauritius since the practical abolition of flogging (September 1883) two witnesses testified before Sir Hercules Robinson in favour of flogging, but they were witnesses who did so under the erroneous impression that the cat-o'-nine-tails is a truly British institution which, as members of the "English party in Mauritius," as they presume to call themselves, they are bound to uphold these witnesses were Mr. Antelme, the leader of the very small minority, and Mr. Didier St. Amand, the chairman of the committee of the English officials.

21. As Mr. Didier has, for the moment, in spite of my recommendation to the contrary, been placed in the position of Acting Puisne Judge, the following sentence from his evidence, before Sir Hercules Robinson, is worth noting:-

"One thing I can say with regard to the question of flogging, that the cat-o'-nine-tails, if it were hung at the door of a prison built in wood,, would give far more chance of discipline than stone prisons without it."

22. This is worth noting, as an indication of what might happen, if a certain little group of officials were again allowed to influence the Executive: with the substitution of cruel punishments in place of Mr. Kennedy's rational system, prison offences would no doubt become numerous, and crime would no longer continue to decrease.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

The Right Hon. Edward Stanhope, M.P.,___

&c.

&c.

&c.

J. POPE HENNESSY.

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