{"id":46075,"date":"2026-06-01T21:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=46075"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:18:59","slug":"economics-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/economics-and-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Economics and Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Our Archives – A Glimpse into 1961<\/strong><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

By Peter Ibbotson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Any social and economic study of Mauritius is of necessity a study of poverty. In the past few years there have been great economic changes, but the sentence I have just written is broadly true. The vast majority of Mauritians are living in poverty stark, unadulterated poverty. Mr Luce’s famous report demonstrated the cold sober truth of the degree to which poverty exists among the workers; even among those who are in work, Wages don’t, in the main, equal necessary expenditure. For the workless, life is a veritable nightmare. No unemployment assistance; only the Public Assistance Department (PAD) where, if reports and complaints are to be believed, many an applicant is insulted or degraded by the clerks-in-charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mounting sums set aside in the annual budget for the relief of poverty through the PAD are eloquent testimony to the widespread existence of poverty. Thus in 1957-58, no less than Rs 25,000 were budgeted for funerals and Rs 2.75 million for outdoor relief: the Government explained these sums by “increased demand for coffins for paupers” and \u201cincreased provision for cases of temporary destitution arising from unemployment”. (In the previous year the items cost, respectively, Rs 15,000 and Rs 7,250,000). The following year, 1958-59, outdoor relief cost Rs 9,295,174 as against the budget estimate of Rs 4.25 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The increased estimate, when it was made, was accompanied in the usual memorandum on the estimates by the explanation \u201cThe increase in the provision for outdoor relief reflects the expected increase in recipients.” Although the actual expenditure on outdoor relief in 1958-59 so much exceeded the estimated Rs 4.25 million, the Government none the less allowed only Rs 5 million in the estimates for 1959-60, and in the usual memorandum said boldly, “The sums required for outdoor relief continue to increase”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The massive expenditure on outdoor relief bears eloquent silent testimony to my charge that a survey of social and economic conditions in Mauritius is a survey of poverty and want. The Government is, however, determined to tackle this problem, and the development plan (so tragically interrupted by cyclones and Carol of 1960) was intended to alleviate poverty and lack of opportunity for work. The Government is still determined to carry out the rehabilitation of Mauritius, and to carry out also a programme of economic expansion so that Mauritius is no longer dependent on sugar for her prosperity, and thus at the mercy of unpredictable climatic conditions \u2014 cyclones at the beginning of 1960, a drought (broken only just in time) at the end. The Meade Report, if its suggestions are examined and implemented, will be found to be a veritable milestone in the history of Mauritius and a signpost to a prosperous future.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there are those in the country who would put that prosperous future in jeopardy. They deny the necessity for diversified economic activities; they are content to see Mauritius produce sugar, sugar, sugar, just like the millstone in the old legend, that went on grinding salt long after the need for it had disappeared. The editors pointed out but a few weeks ago the danger of relying on unlimited production of sugar; the article from The Times<\/em> reproduced in these columns last week, and the speech of Sir lan Lyle, underlined the world position as regards sugar: that there is world surplus of sugar, thanks particularly to the expansion of sugar-beet cultivation in temperate climates and to the expansion of cane-growing in such countries as India and Rhodesia. Whereas India used to be an importer of sugar, she is well on the road to self-sufficiency; Rhodesia and Nyasaland are developing cane-growing so as to be independent of imports. If Mauritius continues to rely on sugar, the future outlook is not rosy. Alternative and diversified agriculture, plus light industry, plus home-produced vegetables, is the answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

But all this will need hard work, (The cattle industry needs development too; perhaps the FAO can advise on better breeds of cattle which would be as suitable to Mauritius as the Creole breed; for improved fodder, I suggest the Department of Agriculture gets in touch with the appropriate department in the Government of the Dominican Republic, of all places! In that Caribbean republic there was a situation in the cattle industry similar to that in Mauritius: the need to improve the strain, and a need for better fodder. The authorities looked around the world and found a plant which they introduced from India. It proved excellent fodder and increased milk yields considerably. The plant? In the Dominican Republic they call it \u2018pangola’)<\/span><\/p>\n

If there is so much to be achieved in the economic field, why \u2014 it may be asked is the Government so much concerned with constitutional developments? Why is it, in short, concerned with the achievement of Independence: which, if the New Commonwealth<\/em> correspondent is to be believed, is not wanted by Muslims or Coloureds. The answer is simple. The Government believes that the economic development of Mauritius can be accomplished better as an independent Mauritius than as a Crown Colony Mauritius — and events in other part of the Commonwealth certainly add weight to their belief. As a Crown Colony, Mauritius can raise finance for economic development in the UK or with the agreement of the UK government. Suppose Mauritius were to negotiate a loan with a country of which HMG disapproved \u2014 then the loan could not be taken up. (Dr Jagan met this difficulty when he negotiated for a loan from Cuba; Whitehall wouldn’t let him). But an independent Mauritius could raise financial accommodation wherever it found a source available. Anyway, as the development plans get under way, Mauritius will become economically viable and no longer in a state of economic dependence on the mother country. So, as economic viability is attained, political independence must follow as a natural corollary. Independence will not produce a magic overnight improvement in the country’s economy, but in the long run, it will help a more rational exploitation of resources, a more intelligent investment of capital, a greater use of local capital, and the elimination of enterprises which may be profitable to the colonialists but are inimical to the welfare of people as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Politically, independence is an inevitable development in political growth. Economically, it is desirable. Therefore, the Government is right, while not neglecting the economic necessities, to press for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

8th Year – No 337
\n<\/strong>Friday 17th February, 1961<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 29 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Our Archives – A Glimpse into 1961<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[20427,899,26649,48450,43905,7612,39273,61511,685,61512,61509,119,1522,2269,13892,35492,335,5652,29994,61510],"class_list":["post-46075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-agriculture","tag-colonialism","tag-cyclones","tag-development-plan","tag-diversification","tag-economic-development","tag-economic-viability","tag-export-dependency","tag-independence","tag-intelligent-investment-of-capital","tag-light-industry","tag-mauritius","tag-meade-report","tag-poverty","tag-public-assistance","tag-rehabilitation","tag-sugar-industry","tag-unemployment","tag-wages","tag-world-sugar-surplus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-bZ9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46076,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46075\/revisions\/46076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}