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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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I estimate that about sixty estates, including the latter category, would apply to Government for rails and engines and that a sum of five million rupees would be sufficient to provide cach of them with some main lines, to which they might later on add branch lines with their own means.

This would enable them to make their crops in spite of the reduction of the number of draught animals.

•

I suggest that the price of the materials placed at the disposal of planters for the purpose of laying tramway plants be repaid by annuities including interest at 5 per cent.

The annuity on a loan repayable in ten years is 12.9504 per cent. per annum, on a loan repayable in fifteen years 9.6342 per cent. per annum, and on a loan repayable in twenty years 8.0243 per cent. per annum.

Articles 524 and 525 of the Civil Code, as interpreted by the authors and the jurisprudence, do not interfere with the right of the vendor of moveables which are placed on the land of the purchaser for the purpose of working it, to resume posses- sion of the said moveables, in case of non-payment, when the transfer of the owner- ship of the thing sold is to take place only after full payment of the price. It may he made a condition of the sale that, in default of payment of any annuity, the Government might resume possession of the plant sold by them. The contracts of sale would have to be registered.

In case the Government does not find the law clear enough, an Ordinance can he passed to protect further its interests. And in the Belgian law of 1851 enact-. ments will be found which may serve as a guide.

I have, &c..

H LECLÉZIO.

THE HONOURABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY to the Honourable H. LECLÉZIO, C.M.G.

(No. 7414/02.)

SIE,

I AM directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 31st July, on the subject of the difficulties that threaten the transport of canes and sugar in consequence of the mortality among draught animals from the disease known as Surra.

Colonial Secretary's Office, August 6, 1902.

The Governor fully appreciates the importance of the question and is, as you are aware, anxious to do what may be in his power to promote the substitution of mechanical for animal draught; and, in particular, to carry out the terms of the resolutions passed in the Council of Government on the subject.

As regards the proposal contained in your letter it appears to contemplate that Government should sell rails and locomotives to planters on long credit without any security except a right to resume the plant in case of non-payment of the purchase money in accordance with the terms of purchase.

The Governor would be glad to know whether he rightly understands your pro- posal, or whether it is your intention that planters, to whom railway plant may be sold, should give security on terms similar to those required by the Sugar Estates (Advances-in-aid) Ordinance, 1898.

(II.)

I have, &c.,

GRAHAM BOWER,

Colonial Secretary.

The Honourable II. LECLEZIO, C.M.G., to the HONOURABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.

(No. 7414/02.)

SIR,

Port Louis, Mauritius, August 13, 1902.

IN continuation of previous correspondence I beg to state that I do not propose that planters to whom railway plants may be sold by the Government should give security on terms similar to those required by the Sugar Estates (Advances- in-aid) Ordinance, 1898.

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This Ordinance was passed to provide for the making of temporary advances, from public funds, to owners of sugar estates for the purpose of enabling them to carry on the cultivation of their estates and of gathering the crop of the season 1893-1899 and the Government was given, for the repayment of any advance made under the Ordinance, a privileged claim upon the whole of the crop, for the said season, of the borrowing estate and upon the estate itself.

This privilege was granted to the Government because no other proper security could be found for money advanced in such circumstances. Very few estate owners, however, could avail themselves of the assistance offered, mortgage creditors having generally been unwilling to allow Government to rank before them. In fact, out of The three million rupees which were voted for such loans, only Rs. 1491.546 were lent. It is not likely, therefore, that mortgage creditors would consent to give priority to the Government for loans repayable on long terms.

But, is it necessary in order to afford Government full security for the payment of rails and locomotives on long credit that a privilege be given it on the Estate and its produce? I do not think so.

The present case is not similar to that contemplated by Ordinance 2 of 1898. The Government, in a sale of materials, would preserve the right to resume possession in case of non-payment; in other words, would preserve its vendors privilege, a right

of the greatest importance, and it can, as I suggested in my letter of the 31st July last, further be protected by enactments providing, in an unquestionable manner, among other things:

1st. that, until the amount in principal and interest of the sale price is paid, the privilege of the Government and the conditions of the sale shall remain in full force notwithstanding any change of ownership of the estate, whether by private or public sale or sale by process of law or resolutory action or resale by folle enchère. 2nd. that, in default of payment by the owner of an estate of any instalment of the sale price, the Government may proceed to the seizure and sale of the estate.

In conclusion, 1 beg to observe that the installation of railway plants on sugar estates would prove so beneficial that it can hardly be anticipated that the Govern- ment will ever have to exercise its right of resolution of sale. Experience has shown that no machinery set up on estates under similar conditions has ever been forcibly removed.

(No.7675/02.)

SIR,

I have, &c.,

H. LECLÉZIO.

Colonial Secretary's Office, September 8, 1902.

I AM directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 7414, of the 13th ultimo respecting the security to be furnished by planters to whom tramway plant may be sold by the Government in the event of a loan being raised for that purpose.

His Excellency has been in telegraphic communication with the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the subject and the Secretary of State has agreed to the raising of loan to purchase tramway plant to be resold to planters on conditions differing, indeed, from those proposed in your letter, but which the Governor hopes may be found acceptable both by owners and mortgagees of estates.

The main conditions are: 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 privileged maintenance charges, secondly, by privilege charge on crops and proceeds as in Articles 3 and 4 of Ordin ance No. 4 of 1893; thirdly, by right of seizure and sale of estate.

I have, &c.,

GRAHAM BOWER,

Colonial Secretary.

Enclosure 2 in No. 15.

MEMORANDUM on the scheme for a "Tramways Loan" proposed by the Honourable H. LECLÉZIO, C.M.G.

The security proposed, put shortly, is a right of recovery of the materials of

the tramway with a droit de suite.

Without going into the proposal at length, I

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