THE SOLOMONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 8

THE SOLOMONS.

LABOR SHORTAGE. It is a firm conviction with many of, if not all, the planters in tlie Solomon Islands that unless tlie problem of securing adequate labor is met the plantations will in the not distant future revert to the jungle. Development has been stagnant in the group for years, and without development the planters claim, with every truth, a country is absolutely half dead. The case for the planter was put recently by Mr J. M. Clift, of Aruligo in the Solomon Islands, who is revisiting New South Wales, states the Sidney Morning Herald. If the British settlers in the New Hebrides could make out a good claim to the right_ to import labor and) live, he says, the residents ot the Solomons could state a case hardly less strong. With an area of 14,000 square miles, he went on, the group was one-fourth the size of Java, and Java supported more than 30,000,000 people. At the last census the population of the Solomons was 500 and 100,000 natives. At present, and for some time past, the revenue and the prosperity of the group depended upon the product of fewer than 4000 native laborers. From 191.1 to 1926 the average number at work on plantations and vessels had not been more than J/00. “Every device has been tried to angment the supply of labor,” Mr Clift continued, “Although wages ueic doubled in 1926 there were 300 laborers fewer than in the previous year. Because of a decrease in the population, and, in a labor degree, of the influence of the missions, the already small supply of labor is continually diminishing, [n 15 years recruiting costs have trebled. Hardly any planting companies are paying dividends. Instead of active development there is stagnation surely a strange thing to say of a country which has been for 30 years or so under the British flag.” According to Mr Clift startling figures in regard to the dwindling population are supplied by the Marist Brothers’ mission. He explains that a ledger is kept, in which the names of all converts are entered. Turning hack but a few years in this ominous bookwhole pages are dotted thickly with little crosses, and each cross represents a grave by the forest’s edge. In 20 years, the missionaries say, few people will be left in the Solomons. “This,” adds Mr Clift, “is the prospect open to those who have given the best years of their lives to the development of the protectorate.” Mr Clift refutes any general suggestion that the natives are reluctant to work on account of bad conditions on the plantations, and cites the figures of the largest company in the islands to show that quite 20 per cent, of thennative employees, after fulfilling their two years of their indenture, “sign on” again to work for a further period. Ho ooints out that all native labor is signed on and paid off before a Government official, that at regular intervals the labor on the plantations is inspected, and that rigid conditions have to bo fulfilled in respect of rations, hours of work, housing, and the like.

In the view of Mr Clift the main reason for the dolce far niente attitude of the natives to any long-continued effort is to he found in the old saying. “The banana is the curse of the Iro-

nies.” Where a living can 'be won so easily there is no compulsion to work, and," where wants are so few, they can be satisfied with a minimum of effort. With a declining population the individual share becomes* greater, and the people who are left are even less inclined to work. Mr Clift says that hardly any of the western natives work for the planters, because their territory is so rich in natural resources. Practically all the labor for the plan-

tations in the group comes from on island—Mala. “This island,” says M Clift, “is fast coming under the in fluence of the mission, and althougl the missionary works with every gooi

intention, the effect of his labors is ti

convert a good plantation worker into a forty-second class clerk. It is a fact that the simple savage given a smatter of education imagines that he is far too clever to work with his hands.” “There is a feeling prevalent throughout the Solomons that Australia sets her face against Asiatics in numbers coming into the islands bordering her shores —a natural attitude in view of the White Australia policy. Yet there are Asiatics in the New Guinea mandated territory, while in the French

islands of the Pacific—New Hebrides

Loyalties, and New Caledonia—the Asiatics are steadily increasing. The Australian Government employs Asiatic labor to mine the phosphate rock in Nauru, and the New Zealand Government works the State plantations in Samoa with Asiatics. In view of these circumstances the planters in the Solomons are entitled to ask why Asitic labor should be denied to people ready and anxious to develop the group.” At a public meeting held in the Solo mens several years ago to discuss this question the view was expressed that safeguards quite adequate could lie taken to repatriate Chinese labor as soon as the terms of indenture expired, thus preventing trouble of a similar nature to that caused in Fiji by the Asiatic indentured laborers, who were allowed to settle on the land.

Referring to the possible objection that

difficulty would be experienced in preserving the morals of the native race when brought into contact with Chin-

ese, Mr Clift said that the British Government had already allowed more than 100 Chinese traders to come into

the group, and, since their activities were spread throughout its extent, such prudence now was rather like shutting the stable door after the horse was

out. In any event, he added, the opinion was expressed by many in a position to know that the Melanesian native had little to learn from any Chin-

esc, and that the Chino-Melancsian hybrid was generally a useful citizen. Incidentally, the Chinese have already driven out almost all the small traders in the group. “With proper safeguards taken as to repatriation of Asiatic labor,” Mr

Clift declared, “the benefits to he derived from it in this potentially rich

group would be enormous, not only to the Solomons, but to Australia as well. Half of the capital invested in the

group is Australian; practically all it' imports come through Sydney, and would continue to come on a vastly

augmented scale as the effect of a settled labor question made itself felt; and about 60 per cent, of its exports come to Sydney, where they are converted into secondary products.” “Figures can be quoted to show an increase in the exports oi the group, hut this increase is the fruit of labor

expended years ago in felling the jungle and planting coconut plantations. It will not continue indefinitely; soon, unless a measure of relief is secured, it will cease. The contention of (he Solomon planters is that development is stationary, that costs are prohibitive, and that a force of 4000 native laborers is inadequate, oven if there was an assurance of the numbers remaining constant. In any other

young country it is considered an obligation on the part of the Government to assist those engaged in developing the primary industries —in Australia,

for instance, you have rural banks — but there is a feeling in the Solomons that the planters will have to fight their own battles without expecting help from any quarter. ‘.Repeated, representations have been made to the authorities on the question of indentured labor, but no satiolaetion has been received. We once heard unofficially that the Secretary ot State for the Colonies (Mr Amery) had said that he did not wish to go into the question. When the High Commissioner visited the group in 1925the fust visit of a High Commissioner to the settlement, incidentally—a petition touching on this and_ other matters was presented to him, but no reply to it had been i-cceived.” Another factor which tended to retard development, Mr Clift went on, was the extraordinarily high rents charged for land in the group. Some years ago the planters had asked for some relief in that direction, but the view was taken in certain official quarters that since the planters had entered into hard and fast agreements they should bo observed, quite losing sight of the greatly changed conditions. Recently there had been a general reduction in rents, but they were still much higher than the rents lor similar country in Papua. The residents of the group arc hopeful that the Solomons will bo converted from a protectorate into a Crown colony. They will thus be given direct access to the Colonial Office, and, although the change would add to the cost of administration, they believe that the new status would more than compensate them. “There is a strong feeling in the Solomons,” said Mr Clift, in conclusion, “that it is Australia’s attitude that counts most, and that it is up to Australia to give Australians in the group some relief from an intolerable situation. The Australian in thei Hebrides can ‘go French’; in the Solomons he can only carry on and trust to a fair deal from his people some day, and. if some day, why not now, when he has still some light left in him?”