CO885-(11-12) — Page 433

355

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

| |།། ། །

I Į Į Į l l l l l l ||

Reference →

C.O.882/12

No

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

ar

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

222

(c) The general retrenchment of salaries will produce, after deducting the cuts from posts abolished

Retrenchment of pensions will save

Rs.207,500 Rs.66,000

(d) There will be the following savings owing to the transfer of services and the cessation of grants to local bodies:-

Port Louis services

Grants to townships

Curepipe sanitary service

Cemetery charges in part

Total

Total new resources Estimated surplus

Rs.

183,000

118,500

68,000

16,000

Rs.385,500

Rs. 2,707,000 Rs.1,074,000

8. The surplus will be greater if recoveries for the Hurricane Loan can be made from the debtors; but in any case it is impera- tively necessary that the Colony should possess resources which should cover its responsibilities in respect of that loan. On the other hand circumstances may again make it advisable to refund the sugar export duty, and it is necessary therefore to provide a surplus in case the revenue is again reduced by Rs.720,000. And these figures take no account of a possible failure to reach the full esti- mated yield of the Customs and Excise duties. The proposed surplus should be adequate, but is not excessive.

We recommend, in conclusion, that should the danger of a decline in Customs and Excise revenue not be realized, and should any question of the remission of taxation arise, this remission should take the form of a reduction in the revenue derived from rum, rather than the reduction of any of the new taxes which we have proposed.

CHAPTER XVI.-INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES.

We have not regarded it as within our terms of reference to embark upon a full and detailed investigation into the industries of the Colony, nor would such an investigation have been practicable in the limited time at our disposal. It was prescribed, however, that our enquiry into the financial position of the island should be made in the light of its economic resources, and this condition required that we should at least make ourselves acquainted with the broad features and essential facts of the industrial situation. We accordingly devoted a not inconsiderable part of our time to the discussion of this subject with leading members of the mer- cantile and agricultural community, including representatives of

223

the Chamber of Commerce and of the Chamber of Agriculture, respectively, and we think that it will be convenient if we sum- marize briefly in a separate chapter the impressions which, with the aid of these discussions, we were enabled to form of the present economic conditions of the Colony and its possible future develop- ment. We shall deal firstly with the principal industry of the island, namely, the cultivation and manufacture of sugar.

Sugar.

2. So predominant a position does sugar-making hold in the economic life of Mauritius that it is quite commonly spoken of by the Mauritians themselves as the only industry of the Colony. This, if an exaggeration, is hardly more than an exaggeration. Of its total exports for the year 1930, amounting in quantity to 187,008,216 kilos and in value to Rs.25,194,142, no less than 185,538,889 kilos representing Rs.24,846,253, was sugar, and the whole of the remainder aloe fibre. The importance of these figures lies in the fact that Mauritius, although almost entirely an agricul tural Colony, is dependent mainly upon oversea sources for its food supplies. Its total cultivated area, excluding forest, amounts to about 170,000 acres, and of this no less than 156,000 acres are de- Of the remainder, about 3,000 acres are given voted to sugar cane. over to tobacco, leaving only 11,000 acres for food-crops of all kinds, including vegetables and fruit trees. When, further, it is considered that the majority even of the non-agricultural population is em- ployed upon work either directly or indirectly connected with the making, transport, or sale of sugar, it is not surprising that the people of Mauritius have come to regard their whole welfare as inextricably bound up with the prosperity of this one industry.

3. In a world free from tariff walls and other artificial trade restrictions Mauritius would have little reason to regret this con- dition of its existence. According to the expert testimony of the late Sir Francis Watts the cost of production of sugar in Mauritius is below that of all foreign countries except Java and. possibly, Cuba." There is little doubt, therefore, that under international free trade conditions its relatively small but high quality output would have had little difficulty in holding a secure place in the world's markets. Unfortunately, however, the con- ditions which have to be met are far less favourable. The Indian market, which before the war absorbed nearly the whole of her sugar, has been entirely captured by Java, and all other alterna- tive markets in the Indian Ocean are tightly shut against her by tariffs. Natal, whose cost of production is considerably more than that of Mauritius, enjoys the protected market of the South African Union, the infant sugar industry of Kenya is also protected, the French possessions of Reunion and Madagascar are linked to the French fiscal system which affords them an equal security. In