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the whole island was 26.05 metric tons. Sugar produced per acre was 3.02 metric

tons.

Although an important proportion of cane land is under peasant ownership, mostly Indo-Mauritian, the bulk of the sugar is produced on a plantation scale. The large plantations with factories produced about 60 per cent of the total crop. The smaller peasant owners, some 26,000 of whom cultivate altogether about 19 per cent of the land under cane, often work their land with the assistance of their families, employing extra labour only at peak periods such as planting and harvesting. Many of these small planters have grouped themselves into co-operative societies for the purpose of consigning their canes to factories. The whole of the sugar manufactured is marketed by the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate.

In 1967 exports of molasses amounted to 96,913 metric tons. Alcohol of different strengths was produced, equivalent to a production of 1,772,000 litres of pure alcohol. The greater part of this production was used locally as rum and denatured spirits.

Three other crops are grown industrially, but on a small scale compared with sugarcane. These are tea, tobacco and aloe fibre.

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Tea production rose from 4,353,039 lb. in 1966 to 4,795,785 lb. in 1967. About 3,499,892 lb. of black tea were exported in 1967, 72-9 per cent of the total production, compared with about 2,480,625 lb. exported in 1965. The bulk of the tea exported was sold at the London auctions. Exports of tea to South Africa have increased considerably in recent years.

Tobacco was grown on 1,335 acres in 1967, an increase of 131 acres compared with 1966. Total production amounted to 582,458 Kgs. compared with 491,795 Kgs. in 1966.

The entire 1967 fibre crop was purchased by the Government sack factory for manufacture into sacks for bagging sugar. In addition, the sack factory imported 270 tons of jute cuttings.

The commercial production of food crops and vegetables in 1966 was approximately 47,500 tons from a harvested area of about 9,000 acres. The production was higher than the year before mainly because of higher yields.

The control of the Mauritius Fisheries is exercised by the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources. About 2,750 fishermen with some 2,256 light fishing boats and a number of deep-sea pinnaces, together produce an annual catch of some 1,500 tons. Usually middlemen supply the boats and gear to the fishermen who in return bring in their catch at an agreed price. The middleman is expected to make advances during periods of enforced idleness occasioned by adverse weather. Loans are granted from Government funds either for the construction of boats or repairs to those damaged during cyclones.

Local industries produce beer, cigarettes, matches, aloe-fibre bags for sugar, rum, aerated minerals, country liquor, leather, rubber, leather and plastic footwear, metal doors and windows, wooden and steel furniture, soap, toothpaste, margarine, spring mattresses, fibre glass manufactures, furniture polish, louvre windows, paints, retread tyres, nails, chain link fencing, welding electrodes, confectionery and car batteries. The bulk of the needs of the territory are met by importation from other countries.

Imports of rice, the staple food of Mauritius, were 66,795 metric tons in 1967. Flour was imported mainly from Australia and France, beef on the hoof from Madagascar, and considerable quantities of foodstuffs from Britain, South Africa and Australia.

Port Louis, the capital is also the only port. It can accommodate eleven oceangoing vessels at any one time and six smaller vessels. The island is served by an international airport situated at Plaisance, some five miles from Mahébourg. It is managed and operated by the Department of Civil Aviation of the Mauritius Government. There are no other airfields nor are there any locally registered aircraft or operators. Scheduled air services are operated by Air France, Qantas, South African Airways, B.O.A.C. and Air India. The Island has an excellent system of road communications.

The broadcasting service in Mauritius is now run by an independent body, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, which has a monopoly in the territory. The station at Malherbes operates on 439 metres, 9,710 and 4,850 kc/s with powers of 10 kW in both cases. In February 1965 a television service was introduced. The main transmitters, (5 kW vision and 1 kW sound) at Malherbes operate on Channel 4. To provide full coverage over the island three repeater stations have been erected at Jurançon (Channel 9), Fort George (Channel 7) and Motte Therese (Channel 11). In December 1968 there were 50,192 radio and 12,160 T.V. sets duly licensed.

The main sources of recurrent revenue are income tax and customs and excise duties, mainly on imports; there is also an export tax on sugar.

Free primary education is provided for all children between the ages of five and twelve, but it is not compulsory. Secondary education is almost exclusively of the grammar school type leading to the School Certificate and Higher School Certificate. Apart from school libraries, there are extensive public library services in most townships. The Natural History Museum in Port Louis is mainly regional in character and contains representative collections of the fauna, flora and geology of Mauritius and of the neighbouring islands. The Historical Museum devoted to local history is at Mahébourg in the south east.

HISTORY

Mauritius was probably first visited by Arab sailors and Malays during the Middle Ages. During the early sixteenth century Portuguese sailors visited the island several times and the first European to discover it is believed to have been Domingos Fernandez. The Portuguese used it merely as a port of call without making any settlement. The first settlers were the Dutch who landed in 1598 and gave the island the name Mauritius in honour of their ruler, Prince Maurice of Nassau. Settlements were established from 1638 onwards but did not prosper and the island was abandoned in 1710. In 1715 the island was formally taken possession of by the French. A small first contingent of colonists was sent in 1721 from the neighbouring island of Réunion (then called Bourbon), but it was not

actually occupied until 1722 when a small party of colonists was sent out on behalf of the French East India Company. The island was then named Isle de France. From 1722 until about 1767 it was governed by that Company. From 1767 to 1810, apart from the brief period of independence under the Colonial Assembly during the French Revolution, it was in charge of officials appointed by the French Government.

During the long war between England and France, French men-of-war and privateers based on the Isle de France were a source of great mischief to the English merchant vessels. The British Government decided to capture the island and in 1810 a strong British expedition was eventually successful. The former name of Mauritius was then restored to it, and, with its dependencies, including Rodrigues, it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. It was from Mauritius in 1642 that Tasman set out on his most important voyage of Australian discovery.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From 1810 to 1903 Mauritius and Seychelles were administered as a single British colony. The administration at first consisted of a Governor, assisted by a number of British officials. In 1825 a Council of Government was established which consisted of the Governor and four officials nominated by him. In 1832 an equal number of officials and non-officials were appointed to the Council.

The constitution was amended in 1885 and in 1886 elections were held on a limited franchise for a Council of Government in which there were 8 officials, 9 other members (some of them officials) chosen by the Governor, and 10 members elected by the various districts of the island. Elections were subsequently held every five years until 1936. Seychelles became a separate colony in 1903.

In 1947 a new constitution granted a wide measure of enfranchisement on the basis of a 'simple literacy' requirement. A general election was held in August 1948 and the first Legislative Council met on 1st September. In 1957 the Governor appointed a Speaker to preside in the Legislative Council. In the same year a ministerial system was introduced. In 1958 the constitution was amended again to provide for universal suffrage and following elections in 1959 the Legislative Council was expanded.

In the last few years constitutional development in Mauritius has proceeded rapidly and at a constitutional conference held in London in September 1965 the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced that it was right that Mauritius should be independent and take her place among the sovereign nations of the world. It was then decided that after a general election had been held and a new Government formed, Her Majesty's Government would be prepared to fix a date and take the necessary steps to declare Mauritius independent after a period of six month's full internal self-government, provided a resolution to this effect were passed in the Legislative Assembly.

GOVERNMENT

The General Election was held on 7th August 1967, when the Independence Party, under Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, was returned to power and a new constitution granting full internal self-government was introduced. The Independence motion was passed in the Mauritius Legislative Assembly on 22nd August

1967 and the island became independent on 12th March 1968. The Governor, Sir John Rennie became the first Governor-General.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL

Sir Leonard Williams, GC MG

CABINET

Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs, Defence and Internal Security and Minister of Information and Broadcasting: Dr the Hon. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Minister of Works and Minister of Communications: The Hon. A. H. M. Osman Attorney-General and Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs: R. Jomadar Minister of Housing, Lands and Town and Country Planning: A. R. Mohamed Minister of Finance: V. Ringadoo

Minister of Health: K. Jagatsingh

Minister of Commerce and Industry: Dr B. Ghurburrun
Minister of Local Government and Co-operative Development and
Minister of Labour: H. E. Walter

Minister of Social Security: P. G. R. Rault
Minister of Agriculture: S. Boolell

LEGISLATIVE Assembly

Speaker: H. R. Vaghjee
70 Members

Clerk: G. T. d'Espaignet

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REPUBLIC OF NAURU

he Republic of Nauru consists of a single island of approximately 8.2 square miles lying 26 miles south of the equator at 0° 32′ S. and 165° 55′ E. Nauru's nearest neighbour, 190 miles to the east, is Ocean Island, a part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. The island is 2,500 miles from Sydney, 2,600 miles from Honolulu, and 3,000 miles from Tokyo.

Approximately oval and about 12 miles in circumference, the island is surrounded by a coral reef, which is exposed at low tide, and by a sandy beach from which the ground rises forming a fertile belt between 150 and 300 yards wide encircling the island. Inland coral cliffs rise to a height of up to 100 feet and merge with the central plateau, the highest point of which is 213 feet above sea level. The plateau is largely composed of phosphate rock and, where this has been removed, there is a rugged terrain of coral pinnacles up to 50 feet high.

The climate is tropical but is tempered by sea breezes. Average annual rainfall since 1950 has been 81 inches but there have been marked deviations from this average; as many as 180 inches and as few as 12 inches have been recorded since 1940. The only fertile areas are the narrow coastal belt where coconut palms and pandanus trees grow and the land surrounding Buada lagoon where bananas, pineapples and some vegetables are grown. Erratic rainfall and the highly porous nature of the soil severely restrict cultivzation and local requirements of fruit and vegetables are mostly met by imports from Australia and New Zealand.

Some sparse secondary vegetation grows over the coral pinnacles left by the removal of phosphate. There are few indigenous animals and birdlife is not plentiful. At times fish are abundant in the deep waters surrounding the island. The Nauruan people are mainly of mixed Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian origin but are most closely related to the Polynesians. Their origin is uncertain and the Nauruan language provides no information about the origin of the people. English is used freely by educated (and is understood by all) Nauruans. Of the population of 6,056 on 30th June 1966, 3,427 were temporary immigrants, recruited to work on the phosphate deposits, and their dependants. Of these some 1,167 were Chinese, 1,532 Gilbert and Ellice Islanders and 428 Europeans.

ECONOMY

The economy of Nauru is wholly bound up with the extraction of phosphate from what is one of the world's richest deposits (averaging 37% to 37.5% phosphorous pentoxide (PO) with few impurities. 3,658 of the island's 5,263 acres are classified as phosphate bearing and represent a total of more than 90 million tons. A further area of 585 acres of rocky land is estimated to contain a further million tons. In 1966 1,453 acres had been mined and 37,404,000 tons of phosphate had been raised. It was estimated that some 60 million tons of phosphate remained to be worked, representing a life-span for the deposits of less than 30 years at the present rate of extraction. The Nauru Phosphate Corporation is being established to run the industry from mid-1970.

The phosphate industry provided employment in June 1966 for 133 Nauruans, 791 Gilbert and Ellice Islanders, 803 Chinese and 144 Europeans. The majority of Nauruans not employed in the phosphate industry are employed by the Government or by the Nauru Cooperative Society.

HISTORY

The first European to visit Nauru was Captain John Fearn of the whaling ship Hunter in 1798. He called it Pleasant Island and noted that it was "extremely populous" with "houses in great numbers". During the 19th century various traders, beachcombers, etc., established themselves on the island without it coming under the formal control of any of the European powers. By the AngloGerman Convention of 1886 the island was allocated to the German sphere of interest and reverted to its native name of Nauru. German occupation began on 1st October 1888 when the gunboat Eber arrived carrying a German Commissioner, whose initial task was the restoration of peace between the twelve tribes living on the island. The earlier arrival of firearms and alcohol had upset the balance between the tribes and precipitated a ten years war which reduced the population from about 1,400 in 1842 to little over 900 in 1888. Apart from banning alcohol and restoring order the Germans did little to foster the development of Nauru until after the arrival of missionaries in 1899 who introduced Christianity as well as education.

During World War I the Germans surrendered Nauru to an Australian Expeditionary Force on 6th November 1914 and the island passed under British administration. The Germans formally renounced their title to Nauru by the Treaty at Versailles in 1919 and in 1920 Nauru became a British mandated territory under the League of Nations. Although Britain, Australia and New Zealand accepted the Trustee Mandate jointly, the administration of the island

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