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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

(No. 1895.)

22

REPORT of the ACTING AUDItor General.

HON. THE ACTIng Colonial Secretary,

Ir the vote per member were equalized the total sum payable to each church would be as follows, assuming (and I think, excluding the Military, the assumption is a safe one) that the professed adherents of the Church of England and the Church of Scotland are about equal.

Taking the total expenditure in 1888 at Rs. 129,311.76, the rate per member would, as nearly as possible, be R. 1.12. This would give :-

For the Roman Catholic Church about

Church of England

"J

91

Church of Scotland

November 8, 1889.

"

Rs. 120,960

23

He knew that the members were familiar with the facts necessary for forming a judgment on the question. To facilitate their deliberation, however, he had caused Dr. Beaugeard's motion and the memorial on which it was based (which had been laid before the Council of Government in July last) to be reprinted with his Despatch trans- mitting it to Lord Knutsford and the representations from the the "Congrès Catholique," together with the arguments on the other side embodied in Union Catholique" and the memorial of the Diocesan Council of the Church of England. To these papers are added the audited summary of the Blue Book returns for 1888 on ecclesiastical estab- lishments in Mauritius with an audit statement he had called for showing what would be the distribution of the grant if the share in each case was proportioned to the number of members.

According to that principle (which was the principle of Dr. Beaugeard's motion) the division would be as follows :-

The Roman Catholic Church The two Protestant Churches

-

4,480) 8,960

E. C. ASHLEY, Acting Auditor General

But the actual division is:

Rs.

120,960

8,960

TLC.O. 882

Reference :-

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

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Enclosure 2 in No. 12.

MINUTE.

WITH reference to Lord Knutsford's Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th September 1889,

Ecclesiastical Grants. Mauritius (Papers laid before the Council) 1889.

Minutes of the Governor, 26th November 1889 and 28th November 1889.

and the other papers noted in the margin, the Governor has the honour to lay before the committee of the whole Council of Government, now considering the Estimates for 1890, the accompanying resolution which was passed by the Executive Council to-day respecting the re-adjustment of the ecclesias- tical grants.

The Acting Auditor General calculates that the ecclesias- tical grants appearing in the Estimates now under consideration amount to Rs. 128,150. The resolution of the Executive Council is to the effect that this sum should be divided so as to give four-fifths to the Roman Catholic Church and one-fifth to the Protestant Churches, that is

*

To the Roman Catholic Church

To the Protestant Churches

Rs. 102,520 25,630

or, in other words, that the future share of the ecclesiastical funds (on vacancies occur- ring) should be per head 95 cents of a rupee instead of 75 cents to the Roman Catholics, and 3 rupees 20 cents instead of 5 rupees 90 cents to the Protestants.

Government House,

28th November 1889.

(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,

Governor.

ANNEXURE to His Excellency the GOVERNOR'S MINUTE of the 28th November 1889. EXTRACT from the MINUTES of the proceedings of a MEETING of the EXECUtive Council held at Government House, Port Louis, on the 26th November 1889:

His Excellency the Governor said he would be glad to get the advice of the Council on the question referred to in Lord Knutsford's Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th September 1889 which he had communicated to the Council on the 22nd of October last, respecting the re-adjustment or redistribution of the religious endowments now provided by the Colonial Government.

• Total Christian population 116,167; number of Military about 800.

The Roman Catholic Church The two Protestant Churches

82,060 47,250

In his Despatch, No. 314, of the 20th September 1889, Lord Knutsford had said:

Her Majesty's Government cannot sanction so considerable a change in the settle- ment which has long been maintained as would be involved in the acceptance of the principle advocated in Dr. Beaugeard's motion, but they would be prepared to consent, that subject to existing interests there should be a revision of the existing distribu- tion of the ecclesiastical grant which would give a somewhat larger proportion to the Roman Catholic Church than it now has, and I request that you will inform the Anglican Diocesan Church Council in reply to their memorial, that I cannot but feel that the Protestant churches at present receive too large a proportion of the religious endowments provided by the Colonial Government, and that under existing circumstances, the claim of the Roman Catholics for some re-adjustment is not unreasonable.”

"I abstain from offering any opinion as to what form the redistribution should take, without further assistance from yourself and your advisers; but, as already intimated, I am unable to admit mere numbers as the sole basis upon which the redistribution should be made."

T

In considering the question some members of Council desired to know what was the precise principle laid down by Her Majesty's Government in settling this question some years ago in the West Indian Colonies. This would be found in the Despatches laid before Parliament in 1873. For instance, at page 127 of those papers in a Despatch, from the Lieutenant Governor of St. Vincent reporting that the Christian population of that island consisted of 17,000 Anglicans, 14,000 Wesleyans, and 3,000 Roman Catholics, he proposes to divide the ecclesiastical grant, 2,5001, in the relative ratio of 17, 14, and 3.

To this Lord Kimberley in his Despatch of the 13th of September 1871, addressed to the Governor in Chief, replies:

"I gather from expressions in Mr. Renni's Despatch that he has not altogether over- looked the principle laid down by Lord Granville, that aid from public funds should have a proportion to voluntary contributions, but I do not find that his scheme itself proceeds on that principle, and whilst I agree that the grant of 2,500l. to be devoted to ecclesiastical purposes should be allotted in the proportion of 17, 14, and 3, I consider that the sums represented by these proportions should be regarded as the maximum sums to be attained by the respective communione, and that the amounts actually issuable from the Treasury should approximate towards these maximum sums in proportion to The liberality of the communities interested.”

"To repeat the explanations given in my Despatch on the Church affairs of Grenada, of this date, the principle which I should desire to see observed in such cases is that a certain share of ecclesiastical funds, proportioned to the number of members having been fixed as the maximum of a grant obtainable by any religious body, the amount to be issued