LABOUR ON SUGAR FIELDS

Evening Star, Issue 19942, 11 August 1928, Page 23

LABOUR ON SUGAR FIELDS

“BLACKS GONE FOR EVER" INDUSTRY IN QUEENSLAND. Dimm* the visit of some tourists to the sugar canclields iu the Cairns district, in Queensland, recently, a discussion arose at one farm as to the merits of Australian and Italian cutlers. Tho statement made by growers at Innisfall that cutting would eventually fall into tho bands of Italians was keenly debated. The growers who escorted the party through the field said they preferred Britons, although they had a tendency to quarrel among themselves. The Italians, however, were hard workers, and were good citizens. They did not think the Italians would ever oust tho Australians. Mr J. Cannon, on behalf of the largest growers in tho district, and director of tho Mulgravo ‘Sugar Refinery, said ho employed 99 per cent, of Britons, and ho had had no trouble for fifteen years. His gangs came from Tasmania year after year. They owned their own farms there, and left them in tho winter. They paid their own fares The last fortnightly pay averaged £3O a man. Expert cutters could earn £3OO or £4OO m tho season. One member of the Victorian delegation declared that cane cutting was “ niggers work, and if niggers did it tho sugar would be cheaper.’' He was mot with the retort: “Black labour in Queensland canefields has gone for ever, and you must be prepared to pay more for your sugar to keep white men employed, and to protect an invaluable Australian industry.”