FOR INDIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 143, 19 June 1922, Page 7

FOR INDIA.

COOLIES LEAVE FIJI. SIVA, dune 10. After a considerable interval a steamer the Swtloj --■ after bringing nearly 400 Indians, left Suva on Tuesday with' 1 .107 souls, equal to S_s statutory adults. It is significant of how the desire to leave Fiji is easing off. that out of 1000 Indians offered a free passage to India, no fewer than !H!> refused to leave Fiji, so others on the list had to be hunted up, until !»<>7 were booked. This surely proves that the Indian coolie isatisfied, after experiencing both, that Fiji is a much better place for him or her than India, Of the hist. 3000 who went from Fiji to India, it is reported i that over half have died ill India, and nearly all the rest hn\c been robbed of !ail the savings they carried with them j from here. An officer of the S'utlej says that crooks and harpies sit on the waterfront at Calcutta waiting for the coolie vessels to arrive from the colonies. [where Indian labour is employed.

Of the Indians who left by the Sutlej, 512 were Calcutta people and 4.V> were Mndrasis, of whom 4"4> were men, 187 were women, 250 children, and :14 infants. These people carried with them £31,328. composed of _:!K.017 in bank drafts and jewellery _3811.