Constitution of Mauritius (1885)
The
Prior to 1885, the Mauritian council comprised the governor and eight other officials ex officio and eight councilors nominated by the governor. The initiative in changing the constitution lay with Laurent Loïs Raoul, who organized a town hall meeting of the
The governor at the time,
- Ownership of immovable property of annual value Rs300
- Ownership of movable property of Rs3,000
- Payment of a monthly rent of at least Rs25
- Drawing a monthly salary of at least Rs50
- Paying an annual licence duty of at least Rs200
- Being husband of a wife or eldest son of a widow who meets one of qualifications #1–3
In 1889, Pope Hennessy in a letter to the colonial office, remarked that "no one in this Country doubts that the former Constitution was a better one than the present Government by an oligarchy of 4,201 voters."[1] The 1885 constitution replaced the constitution of 1831 remained in force until 1948, when the constitution of 1947 came into effect. The 1885 constitution was amended on 11 September 1913 and again on 18 April 1933. The latter amendment increased the proportion of appointed councilors who had to be non-officials from one third to two thirds (from three to six).[3]
Notes
- ^ a b c d H. A. Will, "Problems of Constitutional Reform in Jamaica, Mauritius and Trinidad, 1880–1895", The English Historical Review, Vol. 81, No. 321 (Oct., 1966), pp. 693–716.
- ^ Chit Geerjanand Dukhira, History of Mauritius: Experiments in Democracy (2002), p. 41.
- ^ a b S. A. de Smith, "Mauritius: Constitutionalism in a Plural Society", The Modern Law Review, Vol. 31, No. 6 (Nov., 1968), pp. 601–22, at 604.
- ^ Constitutional Evolution of Mauritius: From British Rule to Independence Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine Government of Mauritius.