FRANCE, an island colony of Great Britain, in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles east of Madagascar and 9,500 miles from England. It is of an oval form, about 40 miles in length from northeast to southwest, and 25 miles in breadth; area, 720 square miles. There are numerous capes and bays along the shore and the island is surrounded by coral reefs. It is composed chiefly of rugged and irregular mountains, rising into points of con siderable height; the highest are the Montagne de Ia Riviere Noire, 2,730 feet, and the singular isolated rock Peter Botte, 2,700 feet. Between the mountains, and along the coast, there are large and fertile plains and valleys, having a rich soil of black vegetable mold or stiff clay, watered by numerous streamlets, many of which become periodically dry. The climate is pleasant during the cool season, but oppressively hot in summer, and the island is occasionally visited by severe epidemics of fever. The rainy season is from January to April; between December and March the island is subject to hurricanes, occasionally of extraordinary violence. When discovered in 1505 the island was almost en tirely covered with wood, the greater part of which has now been cut down, although some extensive forests still remain. The fauna then included the dodo, but otherwise was in no way remarkable. Some of the trees are valu able, particularly the black ebony. The in digenous vegetation includes orchids, screw pines, the traveler's-tree, bamboo, etc. Many plants introduced from Europe, Africa, Mada gascar and India thrive well, and nearly every beautiful tropical tree or delicious fruit is met with. The principal item of cultivation is sugar cane, and to a limited extent rice, maize, manioc, vanilla, coffee, spices, fruits and tea, the last introduced recently. The value of the exports of unrefined sugar, which is the staple, amounted in 1916 to $23,103.320. Other exports are rum, vanilla, cocoanut oil, aloe-fibre, spice. The total value of exports in 1916 was $24,770, 015; of imports, $17,988,970. The imports con sist of rice, wheat, cottons, haberdashery, ma chinery, manures, carriages and parts, coal, iron and steel, etc. Letters patent of 1885, 1901, 1904 and 1912 have established a partially repre sentative form of government. The govern ment of the island, with its dependencies, Diego Garcia, Rodrigues. etc., is vested in a governor, an executive council, comprising the commander of the forces, the colonial secretary, urocurator general, receiver-general and other persons in the public service, whom the governor may designate as members of the council. The council of government consists of the governor and 27 members, nine of whom are named by the governor, eight are ex officio members and 10 are elected under a restricted franchise.
The Indians are nearly all Hindus. The churches receive government aid — $50,880 in 1915-16.
The shipping on 1 Jan. 1916 comprised three steamers aggregating 1,080 tons and 28 sailing vessels aggregating 4,440 tons. In 1916 199 vessels of 438,960 tons entered and 197 ves sels of 418,898 tons cleared the harbors of Mauritius. About 76 per cent of this tonnage was of British register. There are 621 miles of telegraph and 140 miles of telephone wires in stalled. Mauritius has cable connection with Australia, Madagascar, Reunion and Zanzibar. Consult the 'Mauritius Blue Book> (annual) ; Anderson, J. F., 'The Sugar Industry of Mauritius> (London 1899) ; Decotter, N., 'Geographic de Maurice et de ses (Mauritius 1891); Keller, C., 'Madagascar, Mauritius and other East African Islands) (London 1900) ; 'Oxford Survey of the British Empire> (Vol. III, London 1914); Rae, W. C., 'Handbook on the Constitution, Practice and Proceedings of the Council of Government> (Mauritius 1901) ; Walter, A., 'The Sugar In dustry of Mauritius> (London 1909). The revenue for 1915-16 was $4,325,015, and the ex penditure $3,830,315. The chief sources of revenue are the customs, licenses and permits, and the railways; the expenditure is chiefly on the civil service and on the railways, which have a total length of 120 miles. The currency is in rupees and cents. Schools are kept up partly by government, partly by private agencies. In 1917 there were 49 government and 91 aided schools. The average attendance at govern ment schools was 6,670 and 8,991 in aided schools. The highest institution is the Royal College, a school affiliated to London Univer sity. In 1915-16 the government expended $209, 765 on education. The French language and French law prevail in the colony, and the majority of the white inhabitants are of French origin. Mauritius was discovered in 1505 by the Portuguese. The Dutch took possession of it in 1598, and named it Mauritius in honor of Prince Maurice. It eventually fell into the hands of the French, from whom it was cap tured .by the British in 1810, and it was definitely ceded to them in 1815. Principal towns, Port Louis, the capital, Curepipe and Mahebourg. Rodrigues, Diego Garcia, the Seychelles and some other islands of the Indian .0 oan are de pendencies of Mauritius. The scene of Bernar din de Saint Pierre's celebrated 'Paul et Vir ginie> is laid in this island. In 1911 the popula tion of the island, including dependencies (6,690) and military (1,602), was 377,083, con sisting of the general population of 115,146, the Indian population of 258,251, and 1686 Chinese. There were in the same year 122,424 Roman Catholics and 6,946 Protestants.