Emigration Prospects

Mauritius Times – 70 Years

Another ministerial delegation left Mauritius yesterday. Although delegations have become unpopular one cannot say that as a rule we should not send our delegates on useful missions. We cannot afford to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world; as a country on the threshold of independence we cannot live in a vacuum. By attending conferences abroad, we help to place our country on the map of the world. So far, all the delegations have proved useful to the Island and we can congratulate the Ministers who have brought us very good results. But we think that the delegation headed by Mr Ringadoo and which goes out to find out the possibilities of emigration will not and cannot bring very good results. This Mr Ringadoo himself has told us. It seems that the game is not going to be worth the candle.

If the Government has decided to send a ministerial delegation to examine the possibility of emigration, it is more than ever clear that the Government is worried about the overpopulation problem. And why shouldn’t it? The population increases at the rate of 18,000 every year, and almost all the social services worth millions are being nullified by the rising tide of the population. The dangers of overpopulation are staring at us from all quarters. We are building about 10 primary schools every year and yet at every school there is a waiting list. All the major hospitals have been enlarged, yet there is an acute shortage of beds. Although new dispensaries are being opened, the queue at each dispensary goes on lengthening. The number of unemployed and underemployed is bound to swell. The recurrent expenditure on Public Assistance is spiralling up and the number of people having “only one meal per day” has, according to the statistics of Mr S. Bissoondoyal, reached 100,000! How can we solve such a problem?

In this very paper we have been militating for years in favour of a bold plan to ward off the dangers of overpopulation. Government had been very slow at recognising the existence of the problem and, when it did, it came out with a plan which had been almost torpedoed by the Legislative Council. Do we still believe that we shall ever be able to face the demographic problem without having recourse to birth control? We were told in Council that emigration was impossible because it cost too much; has the situation changed overnight? Let’s admit for a moment that the Government of the British Honduras is prepared to accept a number of Mauritians in principle. How many can be possibly absorbed? And do we have the money to implement a largescale plan of emigration? To all intents and purposes, it is clear that emigration, if it ever becomes possible, will be more of a palliative than a partial solution to the baffling problem with which we are confronted. The present Government should give less thought to emigration and start considering seriously how best to stem the tide of the rising population.

To mitigate the biggest problem of this Island, we suggest that apart from a comprehensive programme of population control every step should be taken to increase production. The sugar industry, which is exclusively in the private sector of our economy, is doing well and it is expanding rapidly. That is alright. But the Ministry of Agriculture ought to take a fresh look at the production of foodstuffs.

If Mr Boolell wants to make a lasting contribution to the welfare of this place, he has to help diversify the economy of Mauritius. More than anyone else he has the responsibility of increasing our food production so that we import less and less of those foodstuffs which are being actually produced without any help or encouragement from Government. There are vast tracts of land which can be planted with foodstuffs but which are lying idle, or which have been leased to big estates. Again, we islanders have to import fish or go without them, and to crown our ludicrous situation the Japanese are fishing at fifteen miles from our shores! We repeat: the Ministry of Agriculture has a crucial role to play.

The overpopulation problem cannot be solved piecemeal: it has to be tackled in its entirety. The Committee which studied the problem in 1954 suggested that there were three solutions to our demographic problem, viz: (a) controlling the birth rate; (b) increasing our production, and (c) emigration.

Of these the last is the least effective and our Ministers are going abroad to explore the possibilities of implementing it. This will at least satisfy Mr Jules Koenig because he seems to set much store by emigration. But satisfying Mr Koenig is not enough. Let us realise that at present there are about 3000 people employed in the various works of the 5-year plan. As and when other works start some 2000 more may find employment. But what are we going to do with these 5000 workers when the plan is completed? Send them to Brazil or to the British Honduras? Let us not be so silly and ignore the fact that we are already a decade late with our planning. The increase in population has already overtaken all our efforts to raise the living standards of the people. Whether we like it or not the future does look bleak. We must revise our planning policy.

7th Year – No 314
Friday 2nd September, 1960

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 15 August 2025