Chapter III.

Mauritius.

The Island of Mauritius is much favoured by nature as regards soil, climate, and position. It is now essentially a sugar-growing colony, and its industrial existence practically depends on a profitable market being found for this commodity.

A lavish supply of capital, and a low-priced labour easily procurable, on conditions specially advantageous to planters, resulted in a forced production, and much of the resources of the island have been prematurely used up. A too great clearing of forest on an island of only about 700 square miles in extent, and far removed from any continent, has led to a lower rainfall, and much of the old land is no longer cultivable with profit, while a still greater quantity has perceptibly deteriorated. page 58 The newly cleared lands are wanted to take the place of abandoned or worn out districts which, if extreme caution be not used, are likely to increase in extent. The immense capital invested in this island is, some of it, in a precarious position, and it is important for all interests that the island should be placed on a more healthy and natural footing. Time and wise measures alone will bring this about.

The colony includes many smaller islands of value inhabited by mixed races. Some of these are fertile and some are renowned for their picturesqueness and the variety and rarity of their natural vegetable productions, but they are too small in extent to count for much as raisers of produce, and are, consequently, little heard of. One or two of them possess qualities which last, and are of more value for a power aiming at empire than the mere capacity to grow sugar. The harbour of Mahé, in the Seychelles Islands, has considerable capacity and splendid anchorages, and could be made anything of; the soft coral reefs are easily sawn, and capacious wharfs could be made; there is abundance of excellent water; the climate is warm, but healthy; there are no hurricanes, and it could be rendered as impregnable as Malta.^*

Mauritius received a great blow by the opening of the Suez Canal, which diverted the valuable custom of a port of call, and for revictualling. The Canal had the same effect on its fortunes as a new line of railway would have had on a coaching inn in the olden days. The terrible fever epidemic of 1866 damaged its reputation as a sanatorium. Since these events it has become more than ever known as a sugar-growing colony, favoured by capitalists on account of the proximity of cheap coolie labour.

The population in 1883 was estimated to be about 361,000, of whom 246,600 were East Indians; about half of the latter are usually known by the denomination "coolie," which means a native of India hired by a planter to work at sugar-growing in some Crown colony for a term of years at a fixed tariff under the supervision of an official paid by the colony and nominated by the Colonial Office. A large number of these coolies elected to remain at Mauritius on the termination of page 59 their indentures, and continued to work on the estates as free labourers. The place suits them, on the whole, very well, and they thrive and some grow rich. They are a thrifty, painstaking, and frugal race; they are tenacious of all they get; all the lesser and a good deal of the higher commerce is falling into their hands; and much land is taken up by them directly as cultivators, and, indirectly, as mortgagees. Mauritius, unlike most other Crown colonies, had no aboriginal inhabitants. It was colonised by the French, whose language, customs, religion, and laws still predominate among the Creoles. Up to the time of emancipation the land was cultivated by slaves from Madagascar and Africa, and since that period by coolies from India, who now with their descendants form the bulk of the population.

In the following calculations (taken from the Parliamentary returns and Blue Books) rupees are converted into sterling, at as the rupee up to 1879; after that date the value has been usually calculated at 1s. 9d.

The exports from Mauritius have kept up well for the fifteen years ending 1883, without much variation in the value on the whole, but, as with the West Indian colonies, the quantity has, probably, been somewhat greater in recent years. The lower prices for sugar, the staple produce, have kept the exports from showing an increase.

The total exports for the five years, 1869-1873, were valued at £14,476,000 (2s. the rupee), an average of £2,895,000 a year. In the following six years, 1874-1879, they were valued at £20,051,000 (2s. the rupee), an average per year of £3,342,000. In the four years, 1880-1883, they came to 150,142,000 rupees, equal to £13,137,425 (at 1s. 9d. per rupee), an average of £3,284,000 a year.

The total imports for the five years, 1869-1873, were £11,101,000, an average of £2,220,000 a year. In the six years, 1874-1879, they were £14,037,000, an average of £2,340,000 a year. In the four years, 1880-1883, they were 102,145,000 rupees, equal to £8,937,687 (at 1s. 9d. per rupee), an average of £2,234,000 a year.

As with the exports, the imports into this colony have not increased in value during the last ten years. Of late years the rupee at Mauritius has been worth not over 1s. 8d. sterling. In the above period, 1869-1883, the total exports were valued at £47,665,000, and the total imports at £34,076,000, page 60 showing an excess of the former over the latter to the large amount of £13,589,000. This is an average of over £900,000 a year, or, taking the fifteen years, the exports have exceeded the imports by more than 50s. per head of population each year. The question that naturally arises will be, who receives the equivalent for this ? The answer will be given farther on. The exports to the United Kingdom for the five years ending 1873 average £897,000 a year, or nearly 31 per cent, of the whole yearly exports; for the six years ending 1879, the average was £1,010,000 a year, or a little over 30 per cent.; and for the four years ending 1883 the average was £369,000 a year (at 1s. 9d. a rupee), or nearly 11¼ per cent, of the exports of the colony for that period.

The imports from the United Kingdom for the five years ending 1873 averaged £559,000 a year, a little over 25 per cent, of total imports; for the six years ending 1879 the average had fallen to £490,000 a year, about 21 per cent.; for the four years ending 1883 the average was £555,000 a year (at 1s. 9d. a rupee), about 25 per cent.

The Board of Trade returns give the value of exports from the United Kingdom to Mauritius at about £569,000 or 7½ per cent, less than the colonial returns, and the imports to the United Kingdom are valued at about £978,000, or 8? per cent, more than the colonial returns, for the fifteen years ending 1883.

Mauritius sends comparatively little produce to England; her chief market is Australasia, to whose various ports she sent upwards of 17½ millions sterling (at 2s. the rupee) of produce in the fifteen years ending 1883. She received in return, direct from Australasia, less than 2 millions sterling, much of it in salted beef and provisions. This accounts for more than 15½ millions of the 16 millions excess of exports over imports, referred to before. The produce shipped to Australasia was not paid for in exports to Mauritius, but by bills and other arrangements made by the owners, dealers, and shippers of the produce. During the eight years 1869-76 Mauritius exported to the Cape of Good Hope £540,000 in produce, and received £331,000 in return. In the seven years 1877-83 the shipment to the Cape largely increased, and amounted to £1,7 3 2,000, the return imports amounting only to £343,000 in the seven years. The shipments to the Cape exceeded the imports from it by £1,598,000 (rupee 2s.) in the fifteen years, The imports from France consist principally of wine, liquors. page 61 millinery, haberdashery and apparel. In the eleven years 1869-79 Mauritius imported from that country goods valued at £3,882,000 (2s. rupee), and exported to it only £1,400,000 in return. In the four years 1880-83 the imports from France were valued at £1,555,000, and the exports to France at £301,000 (at 1s. 9d. a rupee). The balance of this account, amounting for the whole period of fifteen years to £3,736,000, was probably settled in London. During the same period of fifteen years, merchandise, valued at about £1,629,000 (2s. a rupee), mostly guano and some mules, was imported from Peru, and the payments for this amount were probably also made in London, where are situated the chief offices of the various companies who do most of the business of the island. The Madagascar trade with Mauritius might have developed in importance if recent events had not disturbed it. The total imports (a good deal of them in live stock and straw bags for sugar) for the fifteen years have been valued at £1,505,000, and the exports to Madagascar at £1,511,000 (rupee 2s.), thus balancing one another. The United States have recently taken produce from Mauritius; in the four years 1880-83 the exports amounted to £553,000 (1s. 9d. the rupee), but there were only about £20,000 in imports direct from the United States for the same period. In the same four years Mauritius imported from Pondicherry to the value of £182,000, and exported direct in return only £58,000.

The trade with the adjoining French colony of Réunion, for the three years 1881-83, amounted only to about £50,000 imports and £120,000 exports. There is a movement of trade between Mauritius and the smaller islands of the colony valued at about £50,000 a year imports and £38,000 a year exports.

The Seychelles Islands, until recently, were sadly neglected, and indeed suffered serious injustice; there is even yet much to be desired in their treatment. They are practically entirely placed under the Mauritius Council, and as the supposed interests of Mauritius are in some instances deemed not to be identical with the interests of these islands as ports of call and for other purposes, the laws and regulations enacted or permitted with respect to them have not always been framed with that impartiality and strict fitness which should ever be the standard of British administration. In order to please the greater colony, where they lived and whose good report they naturally valued most, and whose interests and even prejudices page 62 they always warmly advocated and espoused, the Mauritius officials have ever thrown the weight of their opinion against these unfortunate islands, and were it not that the Secretary of State made it a rule that the Governors should occasionally visit them, so that they might see for themselves and redress some of their grievous wrongs, these islands to-day would be a discredit to the British Administration as they were some time back.

The imports of bullion and specie into Mauritius have decreased of late; in the 6 years ending 1875 they amounted to £1,639,000, of which £912,000 was re-exported; in the 7 years 1876-83 they were £1,732,000, the exports during the same period amounted to £940,000. It thus appears as if £1,619,000 remained in the islands; it is, indeed, estimated that 3,620,000 rupees are in the hands of the islanders, much of it being hoarded and concealed by Indians, and this would account for £316,750. The local banks would have a good deal, and much leaves the island without being declared at the custom house.

Mauritius imports food stuffs largely, mostly from India and Burmah. For the 17 years ending 1883, the average yearly value of rice, corn, and wheat imported into the island was over £645,000; £7,740,000 worth of rice alone was imported during that period. This is a large importation for a population numbering only 361,000 in 1883. The importance of the above imports of grain food may be estimated from the fact that during the same term of 17 years the average importation of cottons, haberdashery, and millinery combined averaged £220,000 a year, or only a little over a third in value of the former. The total imports into Mauritius from India (including bullion and specie) for the 10 years ending 1883, were valued at £9,071,000 sterling (2s. a rupee).

During the 17 years ending 1883, this colony imported on an average machinery and mill-work to the amount of £39,000 a year. In 1883, the quantity imported from the United Kingdom was valued at 510,000 rupees, and from Belgium and France at 522,000 rupees. Cutlery and hardware to the value of about £61,000 a year was imported during the same period, mostly from the United Kingdom. Out of £805,000 cotton goods imported in the 5 years, 1879-1883, the United Kingdom sent only £122,000.

The revenue raised during the 10 years, 1871-1880, was page 63 £7,238,796 (the rupee throughout estimated at 2s. sterling) of which £2,252,701, or about 31 per cent., was raised by custom duties. During the last 3 years the revenue raised by Government was 26,258,200 rupees, equal to about rupees 24.33/100 per head of population.

The average wages of the working classes in tropical agricultural colonies subject to the system of coolie labour, or practically depending on it for the production of its exportable produce, is necessarily low, because such labour is regulated by contract for a term of years, at a price for which independent labour, when procurable, usually refuses to work, or, which amounts to the same thing, at a price and on conditions which make independent labour unreliable. According to the Mauritius Mercantile and Commercial Gazette, 16th February, 1885, the wages of Indians—1st and 2nd class best labourers—have been reduced to 5 or 6 rupees a month, and rations reduced as low as possible, salaries of sirdars and all employes being similarly lowered.

The public taxes are levied on a system assumed to be in harmony with public opinion. It might be deemed unnecessary to inquire too minutely into the formation of this opinion, and into its authority; but experience of Crown colonies, and an examination of their tariffs, leads one to doubt on these matters. In every country, whether free or dependent, personal interest and personal claims are always the most aggressive, and every one is ready in the public interest to place burdens on other people's shoulders. In the Mauritius, as in the West Indies, the statement is made with apparent conviction as to its soundness, that the only way to get the idle man (the man who will not work for the planter on the conditions offered) to pay any taxes, is to levy a rate on imported food. And the industrious labourer with a family, who practically is the chief consumer of the article, has to suffer, in order that this statesmanlike and quasi fair play policy may be carried on. But the fact is the tax is not imposed or maintained for such reasons, nor would it be proper or possible that it should be so; if the tax on rice and grain be otherwise an impolitic tax it should be done away with, if it be sound in principle on other grounds, and levied fairly, let it remain; but let not the idle man be falsely deemed indirectly the means of shaping the fiscal policy of the colony. Then what is the public opinion that upholds these taxes ? It is the opinion of the few who do not feel page 64 them; of the few who cannot trace their evil effects on the welfare of the many, and on the industry of the place; they are kept up in the interests of the few who fear their abolition will ultimately lead to a burden falling on their own shoulders. These are the reasons for the continuation of the system. The labourer pays duty on the clothes he wears, the same as the rich man, and no less; he pays as much on his spirits as the rich man on his imported wine and beer; and nearly as much on his leaf tobacco as the other on his manufactured tobacco and cigars; and he pays quite enough by this and other ways. A place, an island, far away by itself in the Indian Ocean, levying a tax upon an article of importation such as rice, on which its existence depends (if the supply were to fail to come for a single year the place would starve outright) seems impolitic, especially when the tax may very well be replaced by others more safe and more equitable.

The customs charges are 54 cents of a rupee on every 100 kilogrammes of grain, dholl, lentils, rice, and wheat; 60 cents the 100 kilos of maize; and 80 cents the 100 kilos of beans, barley, oats, peas, and wheat flour. In 1883 rice was imported valued at 3,177,279 rupees, the duty was 300,809 rupees, being 9½ percent, on the declared value. The rice was nearly all from India, where another duty equal to 61/8d. per cwt., or about 8 per cent, on its value, on the spot, was charged on its export—a total of 17½ per cent, on its value. During the same year the imports of grain, oats, maize, barly, dholl, lentils, peas and wheat were valued 1,814,683 rupees. Most of these articles were also from India, but there were no charges made on them in that country. The duties of entry into Mauritius amounted to 170,816 rupees, over 9¼ percent, on the declared value. Wheat flour is chiefly imported from Australasia, in casks, the quantity imported in 1883 was valued at 732,747 rupees, on which a duty amounting to 31,804 rupees, or 4? per cent, only on its declared value was levied. Wheat flour is the food of the rich and the well to do; it therefore has to pay less than half the duty that is charged on rice and the other grain foods consumed by the working classes. Such is the public voice that regulates taxation in this island. The other duties levied are as follows:—4 rupees on every 100 kilogrammes of butter, cheese, coffee, refined sugar, bacon, ham, tongue, sausages, &c. This will be about 4s. 5½d. a cwt. The duties on beef, pork, biscuits, and ships' bread is 2 rupees the 100 kilogrammes page 65 or 2s. 2¾d. a cwt. The duty on fish dried and salted is 1 rupee the 100 kilos., or 1s. 13/8d. a cwt. To show how an apparently low specific duty can influence the cost of a low-priced article it will be only necessary to point out that in 1883 dried fish was imported, chiefly from the Cape of Good Hope, valued at 391,395 rupees, and the duty levied on it at Mauritius came to 24,310 rupees, or nearly 6¼ per cent, on its declared import value.

The duty on colonial spirits is 9 60/100 rupees the decalitre, sweetened spirits being charged 6 60/100 rupees extra (the duty paid on rum for home consumption in 1883 amounted to the large sum of 1,772,354 rupees). Ale is charged 7 rupees the hectolitre (about 7½d. a gallon), and 1 rupee the dozen bottles. The duty on wine (the quantity imported is considerable) is about 8¼d. a gallon in the wood and 2s. the dozen litres. Tea is charged only 1d. a pound. Unmanufactured tobacco is 1s. 5d. a pound, manufactured tobacco is. 9¼d. a pound, and cigars 1s. 11d. a pound. Cottons, silks, woollens, linens pay 6¾ per cent, ad valorem; also all iron, glass, and earthenware, leather, oils, candles, soap and salt. Paper, stationery and books enter free.

The other chief articles exempted from duty are machinery, manures, and coals; very good exemptions, but, nevertheless, class exemptions.

There is an export duty on sugar, the producer of the colony, of 4½d. a cwt. (30 cents per 100 kilos.), which in 1883 realised 347,380 rupees. There was even a surcharge during the year on this duty, realising 81,055 rupees. The abolition of this duty was lately under consideration, and it has, perhaps, been done away with.

The local taxes are far-reaching; every business, profession, and trade imaginable has to pay a yearly licence. In 1883 the shops paid 604,604 rupees, common hawkers 53,845 rupees, fishermen 4,644 rupees, professions 25,281 rupees. There are game licences, of course, and licences for hotels and coffeehouses, and the like; and on carriages, horses, and so on.

The railways belong to Government, the yearly traffic receipts are from 1½ million to 1¾ million. The debenture debt on the 31st December, 1883, was £753.500.

Taking the general trade of the island, it has been seen that only about one-quarter of the imports, and 11¼ per cent, of the exports, are with the United Kingdom. There is a page 66 large intercolonial trade with India, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The imported cottons are partly from the United Kingdom, but there is a large importation from India. France does most of the hosiery trade, the bulk of the haberdashery trade, and all the boot and shoe trade. The imports of earthenware, chinaware, glassware, and hardware are divided between Great Britain, France, and Germany; Great Britain doing the most.

In the year 1883, 513 vessels, measuring 301,508 tons, entered with cargo, and 64 vessels, measuring 28,904 tons, in ballast. Of these, 309 vessels, measuring 168,195 tons, were British, and 140 vessels, 119,549 tons, were French. It must be understood that the steam communication of Mauritius and Seychelles with Europe and India, viâ Aden, is carried on by the great French Company, the "Messageries Maritimes," subsidised by the French Government for the sake of the neighbouring French colony of Reunion; the steamers are monthly, and their termini are Mauritius and Aden.

In the eighteen years, 1866-1883, Mauritius exported about two million tons of sugar, being, during that period, about 31 per cent, of the total exports of the sugar-producing colonies of the United Kingdom (exclusive of India; but this country exports comparatively little of the £22,000,000 of sugar computed to be annually grown). British Guiana now produces about as much sugar as Mauritius. In the year 1883 the import of cane sugar from Mauritius into the United Kingdom was only about 2½ per cent, of the whole of that description of sugar imported, and 12½ percent, of the produce of the island for the year. Mauritius, like other British colonies, sends her produce to other markets when convenient for her to do so.

The inhabitants of inter-tropical lands, such as Mauritius, should be indeed rich; Nature does so much. In 1883 the exports nearly reached 105 rupees per head of population, the imports were nearly 74 rupees per head. But Mauritius is not nearly so rich a place as it should be. It is well off no doubt compared to a West India island. The laws, especially the land laws, enable land to be held and cultivated by the people. The succession laws are just. The mortgage laws secure to the lender, whoever he may be, the amount he advances; he runs the ordinary risks of depreciation, but no one can take away and pocket the advances he has made on the land as page 67 may be done, according to law in the West Indies, by the "Consignee." The coolie being the only labourer, the great injustice done to Jamaica and other West Indian islands by his introduction does not operate.

It is to be hoped the new constitution given, or about to be given, to the people of this island will prove not only a blessing to them, but to many; for according to the uses they make of the new powers given them will it be judged wise or the reverse to give the like to others. The chances are greater in Mauritius than in the West Indies that the separate interests of all classes and races will coalesce for the common good. The genuine friends of Crown colonists, and the real lovers of liberty and freedom everywhere, have been often adverse to granting full rights of self-government, because the franchise in such cases has so often been held and exercised by a certain class only, with the result of imposing an intolerable tyranny on the remainder of the population. If an elective body be not constituted so as to include all classes and all interests, better almost for those excluded to have none. It is often said that Eastern people prefer a despotic government; they have not had many chances of an alternative choice; but, perhaps, they would prefer it, on the whole, to an oligarchy; and, above all, to that meanest and most depressing of all tyrannies, an oligarchy of absentee planters. When politicians propose measures, the reasons they publicly give for them are those only which are intended to meet apprehended opposition, the objects really aimed at are often carefully hidden; but there is no doubt it is intended that Mauritius should enter the path of self-government. There were somewhat similar measures proposed by certain parties for some West Indian islands, but they were not identical in the objects aimed at. What the people in the Crown colonics really want is to be governed as little as possible, to be able to live on their own land without being too much worried and meddled with by regulations and laws, to impose their own taxes, to have good cheap food, and, above all, to enjoy their earnings themselves.