MAURITIUS. Sir, Enclosure 2, in No. 18. Downing-street, 19 June 1858. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Bulwer Lytton to transmit to you, for the consideration of the Commissioners of the Affairs of India, and for that of the Court of East India Directors, a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Mauritius, having reference to the introduction of coolie immigrants from India, under the provisions of Ordinance No. 22 of 1857. I am also to enclose a copy of a letter from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, to whom that Despatch was referred, for any observation they might have to offer upon it. Encl. 2, in No. 18. No. 22,30 January 1858. Vide page 207. 17 May 1858. Sir E. Bulwer Lytton is of opinion that all requisitions for immigrants ought to be transmitted through the Mauritius Government to the Government Agent in India, and that all recruiting for the coolies in India ought to be done by the Government Agent and by his subordinates, who should not in any manner be employed or rewarded by any private persons for their services. With respect to the duration of the contracts which it is proposed should be valid in Mauritius, though made in India previous to the embarkation of the immigrants, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton is of opinion that such contracts should not, under any circumstances, be sanctioned for a longer term than three years, the immigrant however being required to hire himself to labour, under annual contract, for each of the two following years, or to pay instead a sum of 11. 12s. for each of those years. Subject to these remarks and to the suggestions of the Emigration Commissioners on certain matters of detail, Sir E. B. Lytton sees no reason for not sanctioning the measures proposed by Governor Stevenson. Sir George Clerk, K. C.B. &c. &c. &c. I have, &c. (signed) H. Merivale. Vide page 288. Sir, Enclosure 3, in No. 18. India Board, 16 July 1858. WITH reference to your letter of the 19th ultimo, respecting the consolidation and alteration of the laws relating to emigration from India to Mauritius, I am directed by the Com 14 July 1858. missioners for the Affairs of India to enclose to you a copy of a letter from Mr. Dickinson, Sub-Enclosure 1. and also a copy of the Despatch to the Government of India, conveying the sentiments of the Court of Directors of the East India Company in regard to the proposed measures. I am, &c. (signed) George Clerk. Sub-Enclosure 2. July 1858. H. Merivale Esq., &c. &c. &c. Sub-Enclosure 1. Sir, East India House, 14 July 1858. I HAVE laid before the Court of Directors Sir George Clerk's letter, dated 26th ultimo, forwarding a copy of a letter from the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, with its Enclosures, relating to the consolidation and alteration of the laws relating to emigration from India to Mauritius, and requesting the opinion of the Court on the proposed measures. 2. On the general question of the consolidation of the laws relating to emigration to Mauritius, it is not necessary for the Court at present to make any remarks. 3. The alterations proposed by the Government in the existing regulations are suggested principally with the object of removing the evils which are represented to arise from the law at present in force, prescribing that no engagement entered into by the immigrants out of the Colony shall be binding, but that the labourers on their arrival in the Colony shall be free to take service with whomsoever they may choose. It is proposed, in supersession of this rule, that private individuals in the Colony shall be at liberty to engage labourers for their private service before they leave India, and that the engagements so entered into shall be absolutely binding on the immigrants. Governor Stevenson seemed to contemplate the collection as well as the engagement of such labourers by means of private agency, but Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners, in their Report to the Secretary of State, express the opinion that private collecting agents should not be allowed, but that all recruiting agents should distinctly be subordinate to the Government Emigration Agent. This opinion is concurred in by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, who further considers that all requisitions from private persons for labourers should be transmitted through the Government of Mauritius to the emigration agent in India, and that contracts made in India should be limited to three years' duration, the five years' industrial service at present required being made up by subsequent voluntary engagement under penalty of a specified payment for each of the two years remaining. MAURITIUS. 4. The Court desire to acknowledge the great care which has been taken to free the proposed plan of engagement to individuals before leaving India of all risk to the Emigrants. Under the arrangements, as approved by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, the alteration, as it appears to the Court, would amount to little more than permitting the engagement to be made before leaving the port of embarkation in India, instead of confining it to the depôt at the Mauritius, where, it is to be observed, it is required to be made within 48 hours after arrival, where the immigrant can have no further means of acquainting himself with the characters of the planters and the advantages offered on their respective estates, than at the time of his leaving India. The Court do not consider, therefore, that the proposed change would be attended with any of the dangers to the Indian Emigrants to which a system of emigration organised by private persons would be liable, and they are accordingly prepared to give their assent to the principle, as they have indeed already done in regard to emigration from Bombay to British Guiana, subject to a reference to the Government of India for the settlement of the details of the scheme. 5. The Government of India had under their consideration the question of engagements by contract with private parties in the course of the past year, and stated in their letter, No. 24 of 1857, in the Public Department, their opinion of the provisions which should be introduced into the contracts. The Court do not doubt, therefore, that they will be prepared at once to decide on the terms on which such engagements should be permitted to the planters of the Mauritius; and the Court, in preparing the accompanying draft Despatch on the subject, have not therefore thought it necessary to do more than transmit the present correspondence, which will be a sufficient authority for the Government to proceed upon. The Secretary India Board. I have, &c. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the July 1858. 1. WE forward to you a No. in the packet, a copy of correspondence with the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, relating to a proposed consolidation and alteration of the laws relating to emigration from India to the Mauritius; but principally to the question of giving validity to contracts between private persons in the Mauritius and Indian labourers, to be made in India previous to the embarkation of the emigrants. 2. You will observe that we have expressed our willingness to sanction the alteration in this respect, proposed by the Government of the Mauritius, as finally approved by Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies; and we leave it to you to prescribe, in communication with the Government of the Mauritius, the precise terms and conditions on which the proposed scheme shall be carried out. No. 19. 17 August 1858. * Page 231. + Page 287. Copy of a DESPATCH from Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Bart. M. P. to Governor Stevenson. Sir, Downing-street, 17 August 1858. I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 12th May, No. 119,* forwarding, together with other documents, a Report from the Mauritius Immigration Committee, urging the revocation of the rule restricting emigration from India to Mauritius to the six months during which emigration to the West Indies is not carried on, and the appointment of separate agencies at Calcutta and Madras for Mauritius and the West Indies. I have to refer you in reply to my predecessor's Despatch of the 4th June last, No. 74,† which will have informed you that the wishes of the Committee have been anticipated. I have, &c. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Sir, Downing-street, 26 October 1858. IN reply to your Despatch, No. 167,* of the 4th August last, reporting that a sum of 4,220 l. had been voted by the Council of Government for the enlargement of the immigration depôt, and that you had directed the Surveyor General to take immediate steps for executing this work, I have to state, that having referred your Despatch to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, they have informed me that they are of opinion that this expenditure may be sanctioned. MAURITIUS. No. 20. Right Hon. Sir Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Sir, I transmit so you for your information a copy of a letter from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, to whom I directed these returns to be referred. I think it will be desirable that the Emigration Agents in India should be instructed to publish and circulate at the ports of embarkation and in the depôts a notice in the native language explaining to the coolies their rights as regards the rate of wages they are entitled to receive. I have, &c. No. 21. 30 December 1858. Enclosure. Enclosure in No. 21. Sir, Emigration Office, 20 November 1858. We have to acknowledge your letter of the 6th instant, in which you transmit various Mauritius Immigration Returns for the half-year ended 30th of June. 2. There are in these returns some points which deserve notice. 3. The number of Indian coolies introduced from the three Presidencies during the above period was as follows: The departures during the same period amounted to 3,913, of whom 3,228 were males and 685 were females. The excess, therefore, of immigration over emigration was 4,229, of which excess 2,355 were males and 1,874 females. On the half-yearly increase to the population, therefore, the females bore the proportion of about 80 per cent. to the males. Encl. in No. 21. MAURITIUS. 4. The total number of coolies remaining in the Colony on the 30th of June was 146,738, of whom there were the proportion of females to males being 343 per cent. The number of births among the immigrant class during the half year amounted to 1,481, and the deaths to 1,495, being at the remarkably small rate of about two per cent. per annum. These small rates are probably to be accounted for, the first by the paucity and irregular habits of the females, the second by the circumstance that immigrant labourers do not remain to die in Mauritius. 5. The average mortality on the voyage amounted to 13 per cent. ; that in the Calcutta ships to 2.3 per cent. ; in that in the Madras ships to 0.5 per cent.; and that from Bombay 0.4 (or little more than one-third) per cent. The mortality in the Calcutta emigration is, of course, by far the greatest being 5 or 6 times greater than in that from Madras or Bombay, nor can it be hoped that any precautions will wholly ueutralise the effects of the physical inferiority of the Bengal coolies, and the unhealthy passage down the Hooghley. It will also be observed that the deaths among the hill coolies are slated to exceed greatly those among coolies drawn from other districts. The small mortality in the "Ally" and Bucephalus" is ascribed to the small proportion of hill coolies on board. In the "Appleton" 16 hill coolies died out of 131 embarked, and only 5 out of the remaining 273 immigrants. In the "Earl of Sefton" 15 deaths out of 18 were among the hill coolies. In one ship only, the "Startled Fawn," it is remarked that the number of hill coolies was large and the mortality not excessive, though even in that ship it amounted to 3 per cent. 6. We have already drawn Mr. Eales' attention to this point, and we shall again write to him, directing him to pay particular attention to the state in which this class of persons are embarked, and to avoid, if possible, placing a large number together in any one ship. 7. The average rate of wages among old immigrants is from 16 s. to 17s. a month; the usual rates among new immigrants from 10s. to 12s. All the coolies by one ship (the "Blue Jacket") were engaged at Calcutta at 12s. a month by the agent of a planter, named Rochcombe, under the provisions of the Ordinance No. 12 of 1855. These reduced rates would seem to indicate that the labour supply was more than equal to the demand. But they are said not to be due to this cause, but to the influence and misstatements of recruiters who bring the emigrants out under the idea that they are bound to serve at that rate, The Immigration Agent thinks that it would be advantageous for the coolies to publish and circulate at the port of embarkation and in the depôt a notice in the native language explaining the coolies' rights in this respect; and this it appears to us might very properly be done. 8. Nothing further occurs to us on these returns on which we need trouble the Secretary of State with any observations. T. F. Elliot, Esq. &c. &c. &c. We have, &c. . (signed) T. W. C. Murdoch. Frederic Rogers. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Bart. M.P. to Governor Stevenson. Sir, Downing-street, 22 January 1859. I transmit to you for your information and guidance, a copy of a letter from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, to whom I directed your Despatch to be referred. I regret to find from the report of the Protector of Immigrants which you enclose, that no survey of emigrant ships had ever taken place, and that he had never received a copy of the Passengers Act. These, however, are omissions which are chargeable on your predecessor, and not on yourself; but it will remain with you to give such instructions as will ensure a proper survey of all passenger ships before they are allowed to clear out for the colony. I enclose four copies of the Passengers Act of 1855, and also of the Act of 1853. I have, &c. (signed) E. B. Lytton. MAURITIUS. Encl. in No. 22. Sir, Enclosure in No. 22. Emigration Office, 8 January 1859. 2. The "Bengal Merchant" was taken up for the conveyance of return coolies from Mauritius to Calcutta. This vessel had been previously rejected at Calcutta as unseaworthy, and no repairs had in the interval been effected in her. The Protector of emigrants, at Calcutta, in reporting the case, pointed out, that if the ship had met with bad weather, the lives of the coolies would have been in great danger, and suggested that all return coolie ships (not having taken emigrants to Mauritius) should be surveyed, and that no rejected ship should be accepted unless it could be shown that she had been properly repaired. 3. In reporting on the case, we pointed out, that an emigrant ship sailing from Mauritius to India would fall within the provisions of the Passenger Act, 1855, which requires a full survey of a ship and a certificate of her seaworthiness before she is allowed to clear. And we suggested, that the Governor should be requested to state whether such a survey had been made of the "Bengal Merchant;" and if it had, to send home the certificate given by the surveyors. The Governor now transmits, in answer, a report from the Protector of immigrants, stating, that no survey of emigrant ships had ever taken place; that he had never received a copy of the Passenger Act, and was not aware of its provisions. He adds, however, that since the representation received from India about the "Bengal Merchant," every ship taken up to carry return coolies has been surveyed "when she has not come in with immigrants," and a copy of the survey has been forwarded to the Protector of immigrants in India. 4. The omission to enforce the provisions of the Passenger Act in the case of return coolic ships from Mauritius, or to take any precaution that they were fit for their intended voyages, is certainly a very grave omission on the part of the authorities of the colony. There is great reason to be thankful that, notwithstanding the little care taken, no accident has happened. I would submit, that copies of the Passenger Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c. 119), and of the Act of 1853 (16 & 17 Vict., c. 84), which relates to the emigration of Asiatics and Africans, should be sent for the information of the Protector of immigrants. I also enclose for his assistance, a copy of the surveyor's certificate of survey, and of the emigration officer's certificate of clearance in use in this country. And I would suggest that it should be pointed out to him, that all passenger ships must be surveyed before they are allowed to clear out from the colony, and that no distinction can in this respect be made between ordinary ships and those which may have brought immigrants into the colony. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Sir, Downing-street, 26 February 1859. I REFERRED your Despatch, No. 260,* of the 1st December last, on the subject of the ship "Bengal Merchant," to the Emigration Commissioners for their report; and I transmit to you for your information a copy of the answer of the Commissioners. I have to express to you my concurrence in the remarks contained in this report. 14 February 1859. Enclosure. Enclosure in No. 23. Sir, Emigration Office, 14 February 1859. I HAVE to acknowledge your letter of 5th instant, enclosing a further Despatch from the Governor of Mauritius on the subject of the ship "Bengal Merchant," employed in the autumn of 1856 in the conveyance of return coolies to Calcutta. 2. In our report of 25th May last, it was stated, on the authority of a correspondence received from the Indian Board, that the "Bengal Merchant," on her voyage from Calcutta to Mauritius, immediately before she was taken up for return coolies, leaked so much that her cargo was thrown overboard, and her pumps could scarcely keep the water under, 0.13. Encl. in No. 23. |