The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-20
Deplarable Results of Deforesting.

The original possessors of Mauritius,
i. e.. the French [for do not count the
temporary sojourn of Portuguese and
Dutch), are numerically superior
to the English residents, and they
are, moreover, the real strength and
backbone of the population. Wealthy,
highly educated, and with plenty of en-
ergy and ability, they have hitherto
found themselves carefully excluded
from all civil and political appoint
ments. Not only SO. but the very terms
of the surrender of the island to the
British have been forgotten. On taking
it over from France in 1901, we
bound ourselves ''to respect the laws and
customs of the country" and we have
already excluded the French language
from the law courts thereby entailing
all the trouble and expense of interpret
ers, for the black population speak
debased French when they speak any
European language at all. Worse still,
we have deliberately sold for the pur-
pose of being cut down the fine forests
which the French so wisely preserved,
thereby causing fatal droughts, the in
evitable result of decreasing. English
Governors have come and gone for sew
enty years and more, and it never seems
to have occurred to them to make use
of the fine material that was ready to
their hand in the sympathy and loyal
cooperation of some ten thousand highly
intelligent French Creoles. So far has
this hostile treatment been carried, that
it is not considered advisable to organ
ize volunteer rifle corps in Mauritius,
who are far from being disloyal; they
are simply alienated, and yet so
ready to forget the neglect with which
| they have been treated that it requires
only the presence among them of a
sympathetic Governor to rally them to
the British Crown. Finer material for
a rifle corps could hardly be found
than exists among the French gentleman
of the island The young men are
splendid rifle shots, and their fayorite
recreation is to join in the deer hunts
which frequently take place in the
mountainous districts.
| To return for moment to the de-
foresting of Maurftius, | must add that
the result is deplorable. The French,
who have always understood forestry
better than the English. left intact and
guarded by special laws fine belt of
forest land round the island, and called
this tract ''Terres reserves" We have
sold this reserved land to the first
comers, and every tree is gone. The
rainfall is so much affected that whole
tracts of fertile soil, which would grow
anything in the world if there was a
rainfall, now lie waste. The persistent
cultivation of sugar-cane where water
exists, to the exclusion of other crops,
is also pernicious custom, and this
double evil of monoculture and deforest
ing has produced its inevitable results,
in throwing land out of culture, and III
causing malarious fever of so per.
sistent type as to become epidemic in
Port Louis and all low-lying districts
The English Government is already
trying to undo the evil. They have sane
toned the repurchase, at a greatly ad
yanced price, of the ''Terres reserves, >
and these lands are to be gradually re.
planted. The present Governor is try.
ing to encourage the growth OF cereals,
and is making close inquiries into the
increase of fever in Port Louis, where
it is unsafe for stranger to sleep fol
one night unless he makes up his mind
to a touch of the prevailing disease
may mention in passing that above
four hundred feet over sea level the
island is the healthiest in the world
Cor, Pail Mall Gazette