CO885-8 — Page 194

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

8

COTMRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—-—NOT TO

THOUT PERMISSION OF THE ODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

39

must

(section 45) which in view of the comprehensive nature of the definition of "concession be effective in preventing land or mining specu- lation, except perhaps in town lots. Mining ownership or speculation is also prohibited in Northern Nigeria (§48 of Minerals Proclama- tion, 1902).

21441,97.

The important despatch, explaining our rea- Lagos, sons, on the Lagos Rules, was soon brought up in connection with a recrudescence of difficulties in the West Indies. Complaints were made in Trinidad, and it was suggested that rules might be issued on the Eastern model. Sir E. Wing-

field, however, was not in favour of such regu- Trinidad, lations in the West Indies and all that was done 2677/99. was to make the meaning of the circular of 1885 clear. The question which, however, shortly afterwards caine up in British Guiana as to how British for Government Medical Officers might hold Guiana,

24934,01. interest in lands to which indentured immigrants had been assigned could not be completely dealt with under Colonial Regulation No. 76, and a notice was approved requiring public officers 603.01–2. before acquiring, by purchase or otherwise, any interest in land or mining enterprises of a specu- lative character within the Colony, to obtain per- mission.

This abstract will have shown that there has been no very definite rule followed in dealing with the question of land-owning by officials. Fach case has been dealt with on its merits, and I find no instance of special rules having been issued in a Colony, except in consequence of scandals. The circular of 2nd February, 1885, seems, so far as I can judge, to have had very little effect, no doubt partly because it has no reference to land-owning by a member of an official's family.

Independent sets of regulations were produced in Ceylon and British Bechuanaland; and these have been applied, with more or less modification, in Straits, Hong Kong, and Lagos.

The following principles have been generally recognised in considering cases as they arose :→→

1. The most important of all is that fre- quently referred to as "the unwritten law," De which is, in point of fact, actually embodied in certain regulations. In a despatch of 15th August, 1901, to British Guiana, it is explained as "the unwritten rule that in no “case should s Government officer allow “his private interests to conflict, or even “appear to conflict, wish his public duty." The special application to land-holding is given in the Bechuanaland despatch, quoted on p. 4.

+

The difference in conditions between civil servants at home and in the Colonies

Ceylon, 18293/93.

Trinidad,

2677/99.

See p. 3.

Minutes

18293/93.

on

Hong Kong, 22066,92. Straits, 23373/92.

St. Lucia, 8541/79.

"

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is very clearly brought out by Mr. Fairfield. "An English permanent Civil Servant can

never rise to the same position, as a law- "maker and an administrator, as Ceylon "Civil Servants do.

An English "Civil Servant has only the same position "of limited responsibility and power as a "Sinhalese or Tamil Civil Servant in "Ceylon." This in 1893 and it appears to have been taken for granted since.

3. The most prominent source of varying practice in the Colonies has been the varying proportion of native officials. Where, as in the West Indies and Mauritius, the majority of the higher officials are natives of European or mixed descent, connected with families hereditarily engaged in local agriculture and industry, rules have not been issued at all, even at the request of Governors. See, for example, the minutes referred to on p. 6, with regard to Trinidad. Even in Eastern Colonies, natives, except in Hong Kong, are partly exempted.

4. Another source of modification is the existence of uncivilised populations with primitive systems of land tenure. The ne- cessity for stringent rules was first recog nised in 1888 in British Bechuanaland. Somewhat similar circumstances led to the Lagos regulations and legislative action in other West African Colonies, while the proviso that Europeans cannot purchase land in Fiji without the consent of Government is an effective check in that Colony.

I have not been able to trace many important rulings on the circular of 2nd February, 1885, and the rules special to various Colonies, which, taken together, include the set authorities on land ownership by officials.

The only class of Civil Servant which might be excluded from the operation of such rules is that of Judges. Apparently the Ceylon rules do not apply to them, but the point does not appear to have been settled authoritatively. Mortgages are not forbidden by the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong rules (in both cases by express advice of the Governor), nor, presumably, by rules modelled on them.

As early as 1879 it was held that the engage- ment of an official's wife in trade "connected him with a commercial undertaking within the meaning of C.R., 76, and this ruling has since been upheld. In the case of special Colonial Rules it is usual to go further, and to apply them expressly to any immediate relative. There is, however, nothing to show that the circular of 2nd February, 1885, applies to any relatives of an officer, and it is possible that its principles are evaded by this method.

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*C.