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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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"2. Though some hon. members of this Council were opposed to the changes in its constitution referred to by your Excellency, nevertheless, now that these have been carried out by virtue of Letters Patent under the Great Seal, we unanimously assure your Excellency that Her Majesty's representative in this Colony may fully rely upon this Council loyally accepting what has been accomplished, and cordially co-operating in every effort made for the good government of this Colony and for the prosperity of its people.

3. We offer our acknowledgment to you for the silver mace which Your Excellency has been pleased to express an intention of presenting to the Council.

4. We are gratified to hear from your Excellency that in spite of the very severe financial crisis through which the Colony has been and is passing, our assets, including our reserves, as we presume, exceed the liabilities of the Colony by over two millions of rupees. We shall be prepared to fully consider the vote of 55,000%. your Excellency, expresses your intention to ask the Council to approve of for the defence of Port Louis Harbour, as well as the other important subjects your Excellency has been pleased to mention as about to be brought to our notice. We heartily reciprocate your Excellency's prayer that the deliberations of the new Council may conduce to the prosperity of the whole community in this Island.

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"5. We feel confident that your Excellency will continue to take the same watchful interest in the welfare of all classes of the Colony and continue to use your best efforts to promote the material and moral progress of its inhabitants.

6. We desire to take this the first opportunity of our meeting to offer to Her Majesty through you, the assurance of our loyalty to her person and her throne."

- Enclosure 2 in No. 13.

MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS of the MEETING of the EXECUTIVE COUNCIL held at Government House, Port Louis, on the 19th of April 1886.

His Excellency the Governor.

PRESENT:

The Hon. the Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary. The Hon. the Acting Procureur General.

The Hon. the Receiver General.

The Hor the Auditor General.

ABSENT:

The officer in command of the troops.

His Excellency the Governor said he desired to consult the Council as to the course they thought the Government ought to adopt about the address voted by the Com- mittee in answer to his speech, as he had just been told by the Lieut.-Governor that an amendment was to be moved. After discussion and consideration, the Council un- animously agreed: 1o. to support the address with the paragraph added on the motion of Sir Virgile Naz, K.C.M.G.; 20. to treat the adoption of the address with that addition as a Government measure, which members of the Council of Government, being office holders, should be requested to vote for.

Confirmed (by 4 votes to 1).

7th May 1886.

SIB,

(Signed)

Enclosure 3 in No. 13.

J. POPE HENNESSY.

Mauritius, May 10, 1886.

As I took an important part in the addition to the Council's answer to your Excellency's speech on the occasion of the opening of the new Council of Government of the paragraph which gave rise to qu amendment which, after debate, was lost by a large majority your Excellency has thought it fair to communicate to me the account of what took place, which the Honourable Mr. Clifford Lloyd has given in a letter, dated

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the 4th instant, addressed to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, and in which my name is mentioned.

I very much

regret that, as far as I am concerned, I cannot accept as entirely correct what Mr. Lloyd, no doubt with the most perfect good faith, calls a full statement without comment of all that took place within his own knowledge.

Perhaps the best course is to give my own full statement of all that took place within my knowledge, so that the variances may be seen by comparison.

The first meeting of the new Council was convened for Monday the 19th of April at half-past eleven. On the Saturday preceding I received a private letter from Mr. Lloyd informing me that he would move the appointment of a special Committee to draw up the answer to your Excellency's speech, and also the adoption by the Council of the answer so drawn up, and asking me if I would consent to second both motions. He further begged of me to call at his office, on the Monday, half an hour before the meeting.

I readily complied with his three requests, and, on the Monday, at his office, just before the opening of Council, he read to me a draft answer which he had prepared, and which was, in the first instance, approved by the special Committee afterwards named, with some verbal changes. I assented to that answer, both before the meeting and in the special Committee.

During the recess for luncheon, an unofficial member, who had not attended the meet- ing in Committee, asked me what we had done and whether the answer contained some complimentary words to the Governor, as is usually done on such occasions.

After reflection, I agreed with him that the addition of a short paragraph would be a proper thing, the more so as it had been revealed that four elected members had, at the last moment, by the last mail, addressed a letter to the Secretary of State against the Governor before the Governor had been able to see that letter. If the answer to the Governor's speech remained as it stood it might be misunderstood at the Colonial Office, and might lead to some supposition that the other unofficial members did not disapprove the letter itself and the manner in which it had been forwarded. The subsequent proceedings of the day led myself and others to believe that such was the object of your Excellency's opponents.

However, as I anticipated that anything complimentary to the Governor was likely to be objected to by the four members who had signed the letter to the Secretary of State, and as I considered that it would not be fit to run the chance of a debate concerning your Excellency and your administration without your knowledge and assent, I crossed over to your office and explained the circumstances to you. I could not then say the precise nature of the addition which would be made, as I had not yet consulted my colleagues ; but your Excellency assented to my proposing an addition acceptable to all or to a majority of the members of Council.

I accordingly informed Mr. Clifford Lloyd that I begged of him to reassemble the Committee in order to consider an addition which I intended to propose to the answer. I explained to him the nature of that addition and I had obtained the Governor's assent to my doing so, and I added that it would naturally be agreeable to his Excellency.

I then asked Messrs. Fraser and Leclézio to help me in the drafting of that addition, which was done on the Council table, in the presence of Mr. Clifford Lloyd who was standing near us. Two or three wordings were proposed and one suggested by Mr. Fraser was accepted.

Mr. Lloyd and myself then went together to your office and submitted to you the paragraph which was ultimately voted. You accepted it without making any objection or suggesting any alteration.

Mr. Lloyd then told your Excellency that an amendinent would certainly be moved in Council asking the omission of that paragraph, but I answered that I was sure_that all the unofficial members would vote for it, except the four signers of the letter to Lord Granville. Mr. Lloyd then said: If a debate is to be raised in Council about Your Excellency's administration, I agree that the sooner the better, and that this

the most favourable opportunity for it.

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Whilst Mr. Lloyd and myself were returning to the luncheon room, he told me that it was his duty to support the Governor, and that he would of course support the paragraph, but that it would be opposed by some of the official members. I answered that two at least of the official nominees would certainly vote for it, and that it would be carried by a large majority.

When the proposed addition was moved by me in Committee, it was accepted by a very large majority. Mr. Elliott, the Auditor General, unreservedly approved by saying Bravo! Mr. Antelme strongly objected.

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