§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary for the Colonies whether he is aware that guano phosphate from Ocean Island is recognised as the most valuable in the market and sells for £3 17s. per ton wholesale in Australia; if he will state the value at this rate of all the guano phosphate exported from Ocean Island since it became a British Possession; the total payments made for it to public funds by the Pacific Phosphate Company in that time; and, seeing that this valuable monopoly was obtained by misrepresentation and without reasonable consideration, whether the Colonial Office will cancel the concession, and, if unable, whether it will have the concession cancelled by a Court of Equity?
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Mr. HARCOURTI do not know what is the selling price of Ocean Island phosphate in Australia. The total payments for it to public funds by the company in the last ten years have been over £30,000. I am not prepared to agree that the monopoly was obtained by misrepresentation, or to take any steps for its cancellation.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary for the Colonies for what reason the inquiry promised into the maladministration of Ocean Island was rendered worthless by consulting only persons involved, removing immediately before it the persons accused of the gravest offences, taking no evidence from natives or from Europeans friendly to them, and not publishing either evidence or Report; what measures he proposes to take to counteract the impression thus made and release the island from what is in effect the rule of the Pacific Phosphate Company, owing to that company's connection with the Colonial Office and power over its officials there; and if he will say what objection there is to holding an independent public inquiry and publishing the result of it?
Mr. HARCOURTI have to refer the hon. Member to the replies given on 5th April, 1909, and 24th July, 1912, to previous questions as to the inquiry made by the High Commissioner in 1905 into the administration of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. I am not aware of the existence of the impression referred to, and see no reason for holding any further inquiry into matters which occurred over ten years ago.
§ Mr. GINNELLalso asked the number of natives living by their own land on Ocean Island at the time it became a British Possession; the number so living now; the number deprived of their land for inability to pay food tax and now forced labourers on Government works and the Phosphate Company's works, respectively; and, if a full record is kept of the floggings, the total number of labourers flogged on those two classes of works?
Mr. HARCOURTI do not know the precise number of natives living on Ocean Island when it became a British Possession; the present population is about 1,600 of whom about 480 are natives of the island. Natives have not been deprived of their lands for inability to pay taxes or forced to labour on Government works1250W or for the company, and there are no grounds for supposing that floggings are inflicted under the circumstances suggested by the hon. Member.
§ Mr. GINNELLnext asked the Secretary for the Colonies if he can state, when the natives of Ocean Island complain of pressure put upon them by the resident Commissioner to surrender their lands to the Phosphate Company for inadequate consideration or none, or of the confiscation of land, destruction of food trees, exaction of food taxes in time of famine, forced labour, and flogging by order of the Commissioner, whether particulars of the complaints and claims are forwarded to the Colonial Office; and whether he will have the administration of the island and the relations of the officials with the company made the subject of investigation?
Mr. HARCOURTIf any such complaint had been made by the natives of Ocean Island, they would have been forwarded to me. I see no reason for instituting any inquiry into the matter.
§ Mr. GINNELLfurther asked the Secretary for the Colonies if he will say when did the Colonial Office consider the incongruity of allowing the Pacific Islands Company to make a net profit of 700 per cent. on the guano phosphate taken from Ocean Island while the native owners of the guano phosphate were being flogged for food tax; whether it was with the concurrence of the Colonial Office that company then concealed its excessive profit by increasing its nominal capital without increasing its actual cash investment; and if he can state the total profit the company has made on its entire cash capital of £50,000?
Mr. HARCOURTI have already stated in reply to previous questions by the hon. Member that natives of Ocean Island are not flogged for non-payment of taxes. I have no official information as to the capital or profits of the Pacific Phosphate Company, but information can, I understand, be found in the usual books of reference. The Colonial Office is in no way responsible for and has no information as to the manner in which the company raises its capital, but I must not be understood as accepting the accuracy of the allegations conveyed in the hon. Member's question.