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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

TC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO

43014

(No. 343.)

SIR,

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No. 15.

GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Received October 17; 1902.)

[Answered by No. 16.]

Government House, Mauritius, September 12, 1902. WITH reference to my despatch, No. 342, of yesterday's date,* relative to

Governor, August 14, 1902. Secretary of State, August 25, 1902. Secretary of State, August 27, 1902.‡ Governor, August 28, 1902. Secretary of State, September 2 [? 1], 1902, Governor, September 8, 1902. Secretary of State, September 9, 1902.

the prevailing epizootic disease, and to the telegraphic despatches,† noted in the margin, I have the honour to annex printed copies of a Minute I addressed to the Council of Govern- ment on the 8th instant, on the subject of pro- posed issue of a loan for the purchase of tram- way plant to be sold to planters, with the corre- spondence annexed to it.

2. I enclose a copy of a Memorandum addressed to me by the Procureur-General, after consultation, explanatory of the nature of the security which formed the subject of my telegraphic despatch of the 28th August.

3. You will observe that the amount of the loan originally proposed by Mr. Leclézio was five million rupees, but, as I indicated in my telegraphic despatch of the 14th August, I found it impossible to form any reliable estimate of the amount likely to be required, having nothing before me but Mr. Leclézio's sugges- tion in his letter of the 31st July, while it is certain that, apart from all other considerations, the owners of estates, who may desire to obtain a loan, even if they should be otherwise in a financial position to justify it, are now, as they were in 1898, in the case of the Sugar Estates (Advances-in-aid Ordinance) of that year, very largely dependent on the will of the mortgage creditors, whose dissent may prevent them from availing themselves of a loan. As Mr. Leclézio has stated, in his letter of the 13th August, the mortgage creditors generally on that occasion refused to allow Government to rank before them.

4. In these circumstances, I suggested a nominal sum of one million rupees, being merely a conjectural estimate of the amount for which I thought security would certainly be forthcoming on the conditions proposed in my telegraphic despatch of the 14th August. Believing that the conditions which I submitted to you on the 28th August, and which met your approval, might be found more accept- able by mortgage creditors, I subsequently suggested a limit of £100,000.

5. In view of your reply that in the absence of further particulars the sum of Rs. 1,000,000 should not be exceeded, I will endeavour to obtain and submit to you more definite information. In the meantime, I have assumed that the question of limit will not delay the preparation of the draft Ordinance.

No. 18 of 1902.

Enclosure 1 in No. 15.

MINUTE.

I have, &c.,

CHAS. BRUCE,

Governor.

Loan to be raised in England for the purchase of Tramway Plant to be resold to Planters.

With reference to the resolutions passed by the Council of Government on the 17th June, 1902, § with a view to the substitution of mechanical for animal draught on Sugar Estates in consequence of the mortality caused by Surra, especially among mules, the Governor has the honour to lay before the Council correspondence on a

• 43013: not printed. † Nos. 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, and 13. ? A wrong reference. Vide Annexures.

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proposal made by the Honourable H. Leclézio, C.M.G., with a view to enable planters to provide themselves with tramway plant. The Council will learn with satis- faction that the Secretary of State has approved of a loan being raised in England for the purchase of tramway plant to be resold to planters on the following condi- tions; repayment to be made by ten annual instalments on security of contract running with the land analogous to the rent charge created by Improvement of Land Act, 1864; punctual payment of annuities to be secured, firstly, by making each annuity rank first among all other charges whether privileged by law or otherwise; secondly, by privilege charge on crops and proceeds as in Articles 3 and 4 of Ordin- ance No. 4 of 1898; thirdly, by right of seizure and sale of estate.

The Secretary of State has informed the Governor that he has given instructions for the drafting of an Ordinance in England to carry out the proposed scheme, and the Governor is in communication with Mr. Chamberlain on some necessary matters of detail.

CHAS. BRUCE,

Government House,

September 8, 1902.

SIR,

Annexures to Enclosure 1.

(I.)

Governor.

The Honourable H. LECLÉZIO, C.M.G., to His Excellency Sir CHARLES BRUCE, G.C.M.G.

Port Louis, Mauritius, July 31, 1902.

REFERRING to a suggestion which I made to Your Excellency a fortnight ago at a meeting of the Executive Council, I beg to submit the following remarks, to which I invite your kind attention.

The disease on cattle and equines, which has broken out since the beginning of the year, has already carried away thousands of mules and bullocks, and, according to information gathered from various sources, will continue to destroy the draught animals of the Colony.

I

It seems that even the slaughter of all equines and cattle would not ensure complete immunity to the draught animals that would be introduced hereafter, as the trypanosoma may exist elsewhere than in the blood of the deceased animals. have been told that in Africa no cattle or equines can live in certain localities owing to Naganah, a disease akin to Surra, which is said to be the disease which is raging in Mauritius, and which kills draught animals of the above species as fast as they are introduced into those localities, a fact which would tend to prove that the gernis of the disease are always latent there.

It is to be hoped, however, that the disease will not be so fatal in Mauritius as in Africa and will disappear after a certain time, but we must take into account the fact that, when surra broke out in India, it was very violent for several consecu- tive years and, I think, has not yet abated.

I cannot estimate at less than five thousand mules and two thousand bullocks the number of draught animals that have already died or are on the point of dying, and notwithstanding the importation of new animals recently made, it will be very difficult to gather the next crop. It is likely that, as animals continue to die, both those that were already in the Colony and those which have been recently imported, some more thousands of them will have died by the end of the crop.

The Colony will then be in a worse position than at present. There will be no more money to buy other animals or provide for other means of transport, and a large portion of the crop of next year will probably remain ungathered.

I can see no other solution of the difficulty than an assistance given by the Government to planters in order to procure to them, on long and easy terms, the means of laying on their estates iron tramways worked by steam engines.

It would not be possible, of course, for the Government to place at the disposal of planters all the materials that would be required in order to lay a complete system of tramways on their estates.

There are besides a few estates that are already provided with rails and some others which have inourred great sacrifice to begin to lay rails.

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