Tea production declined from 4,678 tons in 1972 to 4,079 tons in 1973. About 3,665 metric tons of black tea were exported in 1973, 90 per cent of the total production, compared with about 3,937 metric tons in 1972. Nearly 17 per cent of the tea exported was sold at the London auctions. Exports of tea to South Africa which have increased considerably in recent years were well sustained in 1973 at a level of 68 per cent of total exports. The tobacco crop acreage in 1973 remained at 1,100 as in the previous year but the yield increased from 614 metric tons in 1972 to 677 in 1973. The 1973 aloe fibre crop was purchased by the Government sack factory for manufacture into sacks for bagging sugar. The control of fishing is exercised by the Ministry of Fisheries. About 3,700 fishermen with some 2,600 light fishing boats and a number of deep-sea pinnaces, together produce an annual catch of some 1,800 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, sacks, garments, rum, aerated minerals, country liquor, leather, footwear, thread, metal doors and windows, wooden and steel furniture, soap, toothpaste, margarine, spring mattresses, fibre glass manufactures, furniture polish, cosmetics, louvre windows, paints, retread tyres, nails, chain link fencing, welding electrodes, confectionery, biscuits, canned foods and car batteries. The bulk of the island's requirements of manufactured products, however, still have to be imported from other countries. In November 1970, a series of Export Processing Zones were established in which local and overseas investors are offered a number of attractive duty and other concessions while manufacturing exclusively for export markets. The industries already operating in the Zones are: soft toy manufacture, reproduction of antique furniture, woven and knitted garments, industrial cotton and leather gloves, manufacture and assembly of electronic components, handicraft products, diamond cutting and polishing for industrial and jewellery use, textile dyeing, printing and finishing and protein extraction from groundnuts. Imports of rice, the staple food of Mauritius, amounted to 58,100 metric tons in 1973. 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. Scheduled air services are operated by Air France, Qantas, South African Airways, British Airways, Air India, Air Madagascar, Lufthansa, East African Airways, Alitalia, and Zambia Airways. The Island has an excellent system of road communications. The broadcasting service in Mauritius is run by an independent body, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, which has a monopoly in the territory. The station at Malherbes operates on 493 metres, 9,710 and 4,850 kc/s with power 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 Thérèse (Channel 11). At the end of 1973 there were 84,218 radio and 30,596 TV sets 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 Alliance 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 GovernorGeneral. A coalition Government was formed on 2nd December 1969 between the Labour Party, The Muslim Committee of Action and the Parti Mauricien Social Democrat. This coalition lasted until December 1973 when M. Duval, leader of the PMSD, left the Government to become Leader of the Opposition. At that time some of the PMSD members of the Legislative Assembly crossed the floor to support the combined Labour and Muslim Committee of Action Government which thereby retained an overall majority in the Assembly. Elections are due in 1976. HEAD OF STATE H.M. The Queen GOVERNOR-GENERAL Sir Raman Osman, GCMG CABINET Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Internal Security, Minister of External Affairs, Dr the Rt Hon. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Kt, MLA Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Environment: Minister of Health: The Hon. Sir Harold Edward Walter, Kt, MLA Minister of Commerce and Industry: The Hon. Rajmohunsing Jomadar, MLA Minister of Reform Institutions: The Hon. Rameshwar Jaypal, MLA Minister of Youth and Sports: The Hon Dayanundlall Basant Rai, OBE, MJA Minister of Power, Fuel and Energy: The Hon. Louis Raymond Devienne, MLA Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs: Dr The Hon. Louis Régis Chaperon, CMG, MLA in Islamabad); Vatican, Luxembourg, W. Germany, Italy: Ambassador (resident in London). NON-COMMONWEALTH REPRESENTATIVES Arab Republic of Egypt: Ambassador T 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 cultivation 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 6,817 in June 1972, 3,346 were temporary immigrants, recruited to work on the phosphate deposits and in the Public Service, and their dependants. Of these some 883 were Chinese, 1,787 other Pacific Islanders and 676 Europeans. ECONOMY The economy of Nauru is heavily dependent upon the extraction of phosphate from what is one of the world's richest deposits (averaging 37% to 37-5% phosphorous pentoxide (P2O.) with few impurities). 3,684 of the island's 5,263 acres are classified as phosphate bearing and represent a total of more than 95 million tons. A further area of 585 acres of rocky land is estimated to contain a further 2 million tons. Up until 30th June 1974, 2094 acres had been mined, which has produced a total raising of over 50 million tons. It has been estimated that some 40 million tons of phosphate remain to be worked. The Nauru Phosphate Corporation was established to run the industry from the 1st July 1970. The phosphate industry provides employment for 110 Nauruans, 848 Gilbert and Ellice Islanders, 310 Chinese and 126 Europeans. The majority of Nauruans not employed in the phosphate industry are employed in either the Public Service or by the Nauru Local Government Council and the Nauru Co-operative Society. |