§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If the figure is correctly given in the last Report on the Mauritius, which makes the illegitimate births to be 53.7 per cent of the whole number, and to be greater among the Indians than among the general population, implying that some three-fourths of the births among the Indians are illegitimate; whether the laws of the Mauritius recognize the Hindoo and Mahommedan marriages of the great majority of the population; how he can account for the very small marriage rate and apparent extraordinary prevalence of illegitimacy among an Indian population which in their own country marries very much and is singularly free from illegitimacy; whether the allusion, in paragraph 19, to the repeated representations of the Protector of Immigrants, 164 of the need of elementary instruction for the Indian population, and the expression of a hope that something effectual will be done, means that it has not hitherto been done; and, whether the Secretary of State will insist that it should be done?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)It appears from the Annual Report of the Registrar General of Mauritius for 1886 that in that year the percentage of illegitimate births was 53.7 for the whole population and 62.3 for the Indian population. The law of Mauritius does not recognize any marriages contracted in the Colony which are not celebrated before an officer of the Civil Status. As regards the small marriage rate, the explanation which suggests itself as most probable is that a considerable number of the Indians who marry according to their personal religious law do not think it necessary to contract civil marriages. The provision for the elementary education of the Indian population is inadequate. The Colonial Government and Legislature have been repeatedly urged by successive Secretaries of State to supply this want; but financial and other difficulties have hitherto prevented effectual measures being adopted; and I can only add that the Secretary of State will be glad if the hope expressed by the Governor may be realized. The Secretary of State cannot insist upon the passing of a measure of this kind, which involves expenditure.