CO885-(20-21) — Page 440

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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judicial to the interests of the more highly-paid labourers, mill hands, horse men, &c., who earn from 1s. 3d. to 2s. per diem and who have been trained to special work and become valuable to employers. He thinks that the result would be that time-expired Indians would be employed in this work and the indentured men would suffer. In other words, he considers that employers would avoid employing indentured labour at a wage in excess of one shilling a day in order to retain them under indenture for their full term. He points out that the Trinidad system differs from that in Fiji in that, in the former Colony, the indenture of an immi- grant does not expire by effluxion of time unless the immigrant has ful- filled the legal obligations imposed on him by his indenture. me that the question to consider is whether it be better to give an indentured labourer the opportunity of reducing his term of indenture by his industry and competence to discharge special duties, or to deprive him entirely of that oppor tunity. While my sympathy tends towards the adoption of the proposal recom- mended by the Committee, fully appreciate the strength of the Agent-General's objection to it. I shall therefore defer introducing into the amending Bill pro- visions to give effect to it pending the receipt of your instructions on the matter.

It seems

to

5. As regards point (b), I have to report that the question of the large number of prosecutions and convictions of labourers for breaches of the law has from time to time received the attention of the Government, and I enclose, for your informa- tion, a copy of a minute, dated 2nd September, 1910, by the Agent-General of Immigration, submitted on the receipt of Lord Crewe's circular despatch of the 4th of July last forwarding a copy of the report under reference. In paragraph 5 of the enclosed minute, Mr. Coates expresses the opinion that the remedy for excessive prosecution by employers rests, to a large extent, in the hands of the Stipendiary Magistrates. During the past year the Agent-General had reason to call attention to several instances in which magistrates had awarded excessive or improper penalties for minor breaches of the Ordinance--due, no doubt, to a mis- taken view as to the proper interpretation of the intention in the letter of the law. On the advice of the Attorney-General a circular on the subject was issued to all Stipendiary Magistrates, calling their attention to the proper interpretation of the law, particularly in respect to the making of orders for extension. It is satis- factory to note from the Agent-General's minute that the number of prosecutions and of immigrants prosecuted and the percentage of convictions has diminished appreciably since 1907, the year dealt with in the Committee's report.

6. On the advice of my Executive Council I propose, subject to your instruc- tions to the contrary, that, instead of adopting the proposal for giving a Magis- trate discretionary power with regard to the making of an order for the extension of the period of indenture proportionable to the time lost to the employer by reason of the offence proceedings and sentence, to confine the period of an extension in these cases to the period of unlawful absence or desertion and that for which imprisonment only is actually undergone for any offence, omitting all reference to the period lost in connection with the proceedings before the Court.

7. You will note that the Agent General alludes also in paragraph 5 of his minute to a proposed amendment to the Ordinances to give him power to defend an immigrant in cases of application for an order of extension, and a Bill had been prepared to give effect to this proposal and to deal with other minor points, but its introduction has been deferred in order to incorporate therein the further necessary amendments consequent on the receipt of the Committee's report and of Lord Crewe's despatch under acknowledgment.

8. If the improvements on the above points, as suggested, be approved, I have the honour to request that the Government of India may be asked to place Fiji on terms as favourable as the West Indian Colonies in regard to the provision to be made for return passages, with a view to limiting the liability of the Government to three-fourths of the cost after the expiration of ten years' residence, an immigrant being required to pay one-fourth and the cost of his outfit for the voyage to India.

9. As to point (c), it seems necessary that I should explain the provisions of the law in force at the present date on the subject of the employment of children of indentured labourers. The Committee, in paragraph 352 of their Report, state that the law relating to Indian immigration is contained in Ordinance I. of 1891. I am not aware whether the Committee had before them "The Indian Immigration Amendment Ordinance, 1908 " (No. IV.), and particularly Section 4 thereof, which enacts that immigrants introduced after the 31st of December, 1908, shall not he deemed to be adults unless they have reached the age of 15 years. Under

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this enactment, therefore, a child is not liable to be required to work under indenture until he has reached the age of 15 years, and shall not be inden- tured on his arrival to serve on a plantation to which his parent is inden- tured unless, at the date of his arrival in the Colony, he is over ten years of age.

For the purposes of considering the recommendation of the Com- inittee under reference, it is necessary, therefore, to adopt the interpretation of a child as one under 15 years of age, whose parent is indentured to serve on a plantation, i.e., so far as prescribing the limitation of the hours of work for children is concerned. In this connection I have to point out that the law in Fiji does not permit the employment of children at all; and the Agent-General of Immigration informs me that, so far as he is aware, it is not the practice to employ children on plantation work, i.e., children under 15 years of age. It appears to me, therefore, unnecessary that the amending Ordinance should confer on the Governor in Council the power to make regulations to prescribe the limitation of hours of work for children. I consider that it will be only necessary to make adequate provision ia the Schools Ordinance, or regulations made thereunder, for the instruction of Indian children on plantations within the school age. I, however, recommended that pro- vision be inserted in the amending Immigration Ordinance giving the Governor in Council power to prescribe by Regulations what provision is to be made by employers for the purpose of education of Indian children whose parents are under indenture to them.

10. The question of East Indian education has been dealt with by the Educa- tion Commission. Copies of the Report of the Commission, with evidence and appendices, have been forwarded to you. I refer you to paragraphs 65-70 of the Report. In paragraph 67, the Commission recommends the introduction of legis- lation to require the employers of indentured labour at certain centres to provide such school buildings and equipment as the Government may consider necessary for the children of indentured Indians. The Commission recommends further that the State aid to these schools should take the form of providing teachers and the salaries to be paid to them. Under paragraph 72 of the Report, the Commission has proposed that the annual grant in aid to these schools should be £500.

11. I will now deal with the question of re-indenture referred to in paragraph 6 of Lord Crewe's despatch under acknowledgment.

12. I am directed in that paragraph to take early steps to arrange for carrying into effect the recommendation of the Committee to the effect that the duration of fresh contracts of re-indenture should at once be limited to twelve months, and that the practice of re-indenture should be abolished altogether within a reasonable time.

13. The re-indenture of time-expired immigrants is now governed by Sections 75 to 85 of Ordinance I. of 1891. Under Section 75, the Governor in Council may

at any time fix any less term than three years as the maximum term for which re-indentures may be registered. I have issued an Order in Council to fix the maximum term at twelve months for re-indentures made after the 1st March, 1911, and provision has been made in the Amending Ordinance substituting the words "twelve months for the words three years " section.

where the latter appear in that

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14. The Agent-General of Immigration reports that employers in Fiji take but little advantage of the privilege of re-indenture and that only 135 immigrants were so engaged in 1909. He considers that re-indenture might be abolished alto- gether, as under a recent amendment of the Masters and Servants Ordinance by Ordinance No. 13 of 1910, Indians may now be engaged under that Ordinance for a term of twelve months.

15. I hesitate to endorse that recommendation, for the following reasons:-- It appears to me that the conditions in Fiji are somewhat different from those prevailing in the Colonies of British Guiana and Trinidad. In those Colonies planters have not relied on indentured labour so fully as in Fiji. The system of encouraging time-expired immigrants to settle on estates by the grant of a plot of land and by the provision of houses has not been universally adopted in Fiji. The supply of indentured labour has been constant and the planters have naturally preferred to work their plantations to a very large extent with that labour, relying in some degree on the privilege of re-indenture. seems to me that it would be wise to defer the abolition of the system of re-indenture Although this is the case, it under the Immigration Ordinance (say) for a period of two years from the date of the coming into operation of the Amending Ordinance. Another ground for

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