CO885-(20-21) — Page 569

། ] ། །

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

264

cumbrous, and that the area for the normal plot has been fixed too low. We regard £40 yearly as a normal income for a settler. About £5 per acre seems to be a fair return from an acre of land, no deduction being made for household labour. Eight acres seems, therefore, to be a minimum, and ten, not five, acres might provisionally be regarded as the maximum grant of cultivable land in ordinary cases. Pasture land or pasture rights will often be required in addition. Capable or enterprising immigrants should, as existing rules contemplate, be allowed to acquire larger areas. We think this will best be secured by allowing Inspectors of Immigrants to recom- mend annually the grant of excess areas not exceeding a definite figure. All such grants of Government land might be made not transferable, &c., for fifteen years. In the case of all grants, leases should be for not less than twenty-five years, with right of renewal subject to limited increase of rent.

Need of special officer to ensure success.

We recommend that Government should make advances to cultivators, and endeavour to acquire agricultural banks. The existing store-credit system is costly and excites discontent.

Ordinance provisions.-All minor suggestions cannot now be summarised. Two matters of importance are noted. We shall recommend, as in other Colonies, that Hindu priests and Musulman kazis, individually recognised, be permitted to celebrate valid marriages after notice, such marriages being reported to the local Registrars. The power of arrest on suspicion by the police is offensive, and useless under existing conditions. The provision has been copied from the Colonies, where it has long ceased to be advantageous.

NOTE. The above memorandum was handed to me by Mr. McNeill a few days before he left the Colony. He informed me that he proposed to include in his report a recommendation that Indians convicted of trivial offences should be kept apart in prison from actual criminals. I see no difficulty in this recommendation being adopted.

ВІСКНАЙ EscoTT,

26th October, 1913.

'Governor

265

His Lordship understands that treatment for ankylostome infection has been pursued in India, in the tea gardens, &c., for a considerable period, and the Govern- ment of India are being asked to supply particulars of the measures adopted.

Since the preliminary suggestions of Messrs. McNeill and Chimman Lal as to Trinidad must, pending the receipt of their final report, be regarded as informal, His Lordship would not propose to communicate direct with them on the subject. But a copy of the correspondence is being sent to the Government of India, who will doubtless furnish such information to Messrs. McNeill and Lal as may seem to them to be desirable.

I have, &c.,

41127

SIR,

No. 175.

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE. [Answered by No. 187.]

Downing Street, 5 December, 1913. WITH reference to the letter from this Office of the 21st ultimo,* I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to transmit to you, for such action as the Marquess of Crewe may deem advisable, the accompanying extract from a lettert which has been received from the Emigration Agent for British Guiana, &c., at Calcutta respecting gazette notifications connection with the alterations in the Emigration Agencies.

I am to say that Mr. Harcourt would not be disposed to raise any objection if all the notifications required in connection with the modification of the duties of the Colonial Emigration Agents and Assistant Emigration Agents in India could be dealt with by executive instructions and without gazetting.

I am, &c.,

HENRY LAMBERT,

for the Under-Secretary of State.

42198

Reference :--

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

41670

SIR,

No. 174.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 3rd December, 1913.)

India Office, Whitehall, London, S. W., 2 December, 1913.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Read's letter of the 23rd October,* on the subject of the treatment of Indian emigrants who may be suffering from ankylostomiasis.

The Government of Trinidad, after consideration of the preliminary sugges- tions of Messrs. J. McNeill and Chimman Lal, decided that emigrants should be examined at the depôt in India, and that lists of those found to be infected should be supplied to the ships' surgeons, who would be instructed to treat all such persons during the voyage. The balance of opinion among the responsible authorities in India is strongly against the adoption of such a course, and Mr. Secretary Harcourt considers that the end in view will be more readily attained if the examination and treatment of emigrants are carried out on their arrival in the Colonies.

The Marquess of Crewe concurs in the proposal to communicate in this sense with the Governors of the Colonies concerned; but he would point out that treatment, whether before embarkation, during the voyage, or on arrival in the Colony, must be to some extent useless if the emigrant is to be exposed to re-infection while serving his period of indenture. If such re-infection is to be prevented, proper latrine arrangements are necessary, coupled with a rigid enforcement of the use of the accommodation provided. I am to add that his Lordship is at present unaware of the arrangements in this respect, and to request that he may be furnished with information on the subject.

• No. 153.

No. 176.

TRINIDAD.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 5.40 p.m., 6th December, 1913.)

TELEGRAM.

Your despatch; 31st October, No. 400.‡ Council concur in procedure.--LE HUNTE.

42016.

No. 177

Unofficial members of Legislative

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

(Received 6 December, 1913.)

[Answered 17 January, 1914, by 20 in Miscellaneous No. 299.]

Trinidad Government Emigration Agency,

21, Garden Reach, Calcutta, November 19th, 1913.

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to enclose, for the information of His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, an extracts from the Press; reproducing a letter from the Government of India to the Tea Planters' Association on the subject of labour, from which it will be observed that it is the intention of the Government of India to abolish the present system of recruitment, as it exists for the tea gardens, on the 1st July, 1915.

§ Not reprinted.

• No. 170.

33391

† Paragraphs 1-3 of No. 172.

* No. 157.