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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Appendiz D. para. 2. (Middle), "and 8,000 are similarly divided to clergymen "serving in churches so constructed. A further annual sum of Rs. 10,000 is similarly "divided for agents using the Indian languages," &c.

19786.

(No. 338.) SIB,

No. 10.

(Initialled)

LORD KNUTSFORD to SIR J. POPE HENNESSY.

P. S. M.

Downing Street, October 14, 1889.

I HAVE received your Despatch, No. 421, of the 5th ultimo, and I have to request you to inform Bishop Royston that the desired insertion has now been made, as he requests, in paragraph 2 of Appendix D. of the two copies of the memorial from the Diocesan Council of the Church of England in Mauritius of the 5th of August, which were enclosed in your Despatch, No. 387, of the 9th of August.†

Sir J. P. Hennessy.

109.

MY LORD,

No. 11.

I have, &c. (Signed)

KNUTSFORD.

ARCHDEACON MATHEWS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received January 2, 1890.)

St. James' Cathedral, Mauritius,

December 10, 1889.

I HAVE informed his Excellency Sir John Pope Hennessy of this letter, which I take the liberty of addressing to your Lordship under the extremely urgent circumstances; and have given copy.

Rs. 21,394 per annum.

It is my duty to pray your Lordship most urgently and most respectfully to be pleased to stay proceedings, and not to pass Vote No. 19, p. 8, in the Report on the Mauritius Estimates for 1890, proposing to transfer more than half the Church of England grants, but to give the Church of England an opportunity of defending her most just cause.

I have, &c. (Signed)

To the Right Hon. Lord Knutsford,

&c.

&c.

&c. Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies,

&c.

&c.

&c.

127.

No. 12.

A. D. MATHEWS, M.A. Archdeacon of Mauritius and

Bishop's Commissary in charge.

Government House, Mauritius,

December 11, 1889.

(No. 571.)

MY LORD,

SIR J. POPE HENNESSY to LORD KNUTSFORD.-

(Received January 2, 1890.)

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th of September 1889, respecting the question raised in the Council of Government as to a fairer distribution of the ecclesiastical grants.

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2. Your Lordship instructed me to inform the Anglican Diocesan Church Council, in reply to their memorial, that you thought the Protestant churches received too large a proportion of the religious endowment and that the claim of the Roman Catholics for some re-adjustment was not unreasonable. Your Lordship further asked for the assistance of my advisers and myself as to the form the redistribution should take.

3. Having duly laid your Lordship's Despatch, together with the memorial of the Anglican Diocesan Church Council and the other Despatches and papers noted in the margin, before the Executive Council and the Council of Government, a reason- able compromise was come to by con- siderable majorities in both Councils which I recommend Her Majesty's Government to sanction.

Despatch 329 of 11 July 1889. Despatch 380 of 11 July 1889. Despatch 327 of 11 July 1889. Despatch 361 of 31 July 1889. Despatch 874 of 8 August 1880, Despatch 387 of 9 August 1889, with memorial of Anglican Church Council.

Report from Auditor General of 4 November 1889. annexed.

Minutes of the Executive Council 26 and 28 November, 1889, with dissent of Mr. Elliott.

Minute of Governor to Council of Government, 28 November 1889.

Letter of Archdeacon Mathews to Col. Sec., 26 November 1889.

Letter of Archdeacon Mathews to Governor, 30 November 1889.

Letters from Archdeacon Mathews of 30 November and 2 December 1889.

4. Up to this the votes for ecclesiastical purposes have been divided as follows:-

108,000 Roman Catholics

8,000 Protestants

Rs.

82,000

-

47,000

that is, the Roman Catholics received

75 cents of a rupee per head, whilst the Protestants received 5 rupees and

90 cents of a rupee per head. If numbers only were to be taken as the sole basis of the redistribution, the Roman Catholics would get 1 rupee 12 cents per head or about Rs. 120,960, and the Protestants I rupee 12 cents or about Rs. 8,960.

5. Your Lordship expressed the opinion that this would be too considerable a change in the mode of division that had long existed in Mauritius, and that mere numbers should not be the sole guide in the redistribution of the grant. Accordingly, when the Executive Council met to consider the matter, Sir Virgile Naz proposed that the pro portion of the Protestant grant should be cut down so as to bring it to about Rs. 16,000, or two rupees per head, leaving the balance to the Roman Catholics, or about one rupee per head, but a suggestion of the Acting Auditor General was finally adopted by five votes to one that the total sum proposed in the Budget for 1890 should be divided into 25 parts, of which 20 should go to the Roman Catholics and five to the Protestants, that is, to the Roman Catholic Church Rs. 102,520, and to the Protestant Church Rs. 25,630, or in other words, that the Roman Catholics should receive in future 95 cents per head and the Protestants 3 rupees 20 cents per head.

6. This decision of the Executive Council was fully considered and approved by the Council of Government, first in committee of the whole Council, when it was carried by 10 votes to two, and subsequently in public Council when it was debated and carried by 19 votes to four.

7. In my Despatch, No. 329, of the 11th of July 1889* I reported that if Dr. Beaugeard's motion (for an apportionment of the grants according to the number of adherents) had been pressed at that time to a division, it would have been carried and that the majority would have included nine-tenths of the elected members. I have now to report that in the compromise arrived at, the elected members were unanimous in supporting the decision of the Executive Council.

8. With reference to paragraph 8 of Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th September 1889,† your Lordship is quite right in assuming that the request about not filling up vacancies in the Protestant Church Establishment related only to any vacancies that might occur subsequent to my Despatch of the 11th of July 1889,* and that the vacancy in the Civil Chaplaincy at Vacoas, which I had previously asked your Lordship to fill up, did not come within the scope of that request.

I have, &c.

The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G., (Signed)

&c.

&c.

&c.

• No. 2.

J. POPE HENNESSY.

† No. 8.

• No. 9.

† No. 7.

+ No. 8.

C 2

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