CO885-(20-21) — Page 438

PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

Reference :-

TITLC.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Enclosure 3 in No. 12.

SPEECH of His Excellency the Governor at the opening of the Combined Court. FIRST SPECIAL SESSION, 1910.

(Extract.)

HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF THE COURT OF POLICY. GENTLEMEN FINANCIAL REPRESENTATIVES.

*

*

*

The initiation of irrigation and drainage schemes on a large scale has been constantly advocated, and such schemes are again pressed forward by many as matters of the first importance requiring immediate attention. Three schemes have from time to time been considered by the Government, one for empoldering the Corentyne Coast, one for empoldering the land lying between the Abary and Mahaicony Creeks, and one for empoldering a large tract of land on the Arabian Coast, in the neighbourhood of the Itaribisci Creek. The first of these three schemes was estimated to cost $337,500 for irrigation only. To properly empolder and drain the whole area the cost would be much higher. The other schemes would cost in proportion according to the area empoldered.

Several reasons have deterred successive Governors from bringing the schemes into existence. The first is lack of population to people the empolders with, for little is gained by transferring a batch of people from one part of the colony to another. The second is conflicting interests, for if one scheme only is taken in hand the taxpayers in two counties know that they would be taxed to contribute to a scheme which does not benefit them except remotely. A third is the cost, because comparatively little revenue is to be expected for some years as a set-off to the annual expenditure (it may be stated here that the inhabitants already in situ have ex- pressed their objection to being required to pay rates for the benefits that would be given), and, fourthly, because a large section of the people think that it is unwise to lock up the labour supply in selected sites, being in favour of letting those who belong to the agricultural classes make their own selection. It is for the people who have made their own selection that the Polders Bill now before the Court of Policy is intended-and this Court may decide to let the question of empoldering large areas remain over until it is seen to what extent the situation will be met by the Bill in question. Further, it may be wise to see whether the smaller empolder Clonbrook-which has been given to the people in small lots, on easy terms, is likely to be a success. It may be here stated that it is proposed to deal with Plns. Windsor Forest, La Jalousie, Unity, and Lancaster, in a similar manner, and you will, in due course, be consulted with respect to them.

But to advocates for drainage and irrigation schemes on a large scale, I may state that the Corentyne Coast empolder, constructed, as it would be, out of loans, would cost the colony for working expenses, interest, and sinking fund not less than $50,000 a year. This and like sums in proportion for the other schemes would have to be voted annually. The scheme most likely to be effective, that is to say to give the best return, is considered to be the Corentyne Coast scheme.

31 October, 1910.

39954

SIR,

No. 13.

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THE GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION AGENT AT CALCUTTA FOR TRINIDAD, &c., to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 31 December, 1910.)

Government Emigration Agency, 21, Garden Reach,

Calcutta, December 15th, 1910.

IN your letter, No. 21829/1910, of the 11th November, 1910,* handing me the report on the Committee of Emigration from India, you state, in paragraph 3, that proposals contained in that report are at present receiving consideration, and later on will be communicated to me.

2. As I have reported from time to time during the past year,t it has become increasingly difficult to obtain a sufficient number of the kind of coolies required

↑ See 39473/10, 32345/10, 31005/10: not printed.

• No. 4.

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by the Colonies largely owing to the general prosperity throughout the country, and also to the regulation which necessitates that four women shall accompany every

ten men.

3. As each Colonial requisition is received, it becomes necessary to prolong the period of collection in order to obtain the full number, and as I hardly think the very great difficulties under which Colonial emigration is now labouring are sufficiently realised at home, I take this opportunity of recording a few facts which I trust may assist those who will be responsible for the proposals which are shortly to be put forward.

4. The Assam Tea Gardens are making very urgent demands for labour in Oudh and United Provinces, where the greater number of our coolies are recruited, and as the means they employ for obtaining them consist very largely of the employ- ment of recruiters who, for various offences, have been debarred from Colonial employment, it becomes most difficult for our licensed recruiters to carry out their work. Extra inducements are held out by the Assam planters offering two or three times the amount of commission which I am authorised to pay, and instances are frequently coming to my notice where coolies who have been recruited by our licensed recruiters are made over bodily to the Assam recruiters, owing to tempta- tions which our recruiters have found it impossible to resist. I have reported the circumstances of recruiters who have been debarred from Colonial emigration and are working for the Assam Tea Gardens on more than one occasion to the local Government, who have communicated with the Government of the United Provinces, but, owing to the difficulty of obtaining evidence and the steps taken by the debarred recruiters to cover up their tracks, I have very little hope of any satisfactory result, or the avoidance of similar occurrences.

ວ.

Cases have been brought to my notice where, on some pretext or other, before native magistrates registration for the Colonies has been refused to women, and I have heard afterwards from my travelling doctors up-country that the same people have been taken over to Assam.

6. Instances arise from time to time where a woman in the keeping of a man whom she no longer wishes to live with desires to emigrate to the Colony, and on the representations of a native magistrate I have had to return the woman from Calcutta in order that she might be handed over to her paramour up-country although her desire is to emigrate to the Colony, and no legal claim can be made on her.

7. Correspondence in these cases I find is useless, as after a period of four or five months, during which the matter passes through many hands, an admission of irregularity may or may not be given, and a similar case occurs over again.

8. Personal visits up-country I find, for the time being, are effective, and for a few weeks afterwards matters run smoothly, but they fall back into the same rut where sub-agents complain of the action of the police and native magistrates, and an interminable correspondence ensues, which, if anything, tends to irritate the Indian officials, does very little good, and gives Colonial emigration a bad name.

9. It is suggested in paragraph 78 of the report that a responsible emigration agent should be stationed in the centre of the recruiting districts so as to make the acquaintance of the officials, enlist their sympathy, and generally to raise the business of recruiting in the popular estimation,

10. If this recommendation is acted upon it will do an enormous amount of good to Colonial emigration, and is a need which is greatly felt, as where differences ▾ of opinion arise between the agent at the coast and the official up-country, it is almost impossible to arrive at any satisfactory solution by mere correspondence, as the up-country official cannot help but be influenced very largely in his decisions by the personal explanation of some of the native intermediaries who are the real trans- gressors, and whose interest it is to shield themselves; and, on the other hand, it is impossible for the agent to be constantly leaving his work in Calcutta for personal interviews, which are alone effective in matters of dispute.

11. Lord Salisbury, who took a broad view of Colonial emigration from India, went so far as to advocate that Indian officials should assist in its active co-operation, but with the diverse interests and local demands for labour the Indian Government would find it difficult to adopt this attitude, and the policy of the Indian Government of to-day is to hold the scales evenly between Colonial emigration and local labour. I do not, however, think it would be inconsistent with this policy for the Indian Government to temporarily lend to the Colonial Office the services of a member of the Indian Civil Service of some seven or eight years' standing, who would possess sufficient address and authority to speak freely with the district officers, and whose