SOUTH SEA "RECKlTITS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15562, 20 March 1914, Page 8

SOUTH SEA "RECKl T ITS."

BARBARIC ISLANDERS. THE PROCESS DESCRIBED. GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION. [by telegraphown correspondent] Wellington, Thursday. It ft not a very far cry to the bad old " blackbirding" days, when recruiters such as "Bully" Hayes were wont to swoop down on the unsuspecting islanders of the South Seas and bear them away in their piratical schooners to act practically as slaves to some unscrupulous planter. With the spread of civilisation and an ever-growing humanitarian legislation such methods are no longer tolerated in what Kipling lias termed "The Isles of the Blest," but the element of romance is not yet dead. Only a few days' steam from Sydney and from New Zealand, the jaded globetrotter may even now see the heathen ! living under barbaric conditions, In the | Solomon Islands, for instance, the natives I of one village still wage war on the inhabitants of the neighbouring village, and life is held cheaper than a song. Recruitiag is still carried on, but it is a vastly different recruiting to that which prevailed in the days when violence and force were rife. In the Wild Places. At present in Wellington is Mr. Robert Allan, a well-known resident el Nelson, who has just returned to New Zealand after spending four months in the wildest parts of the coral-studded Pacific. With him he has brought back many souvenirs and a beautiful collection of butterflies, part of the latter being destined for the Wellington Museum. For a great many years Mr. Allan has taken a keen interest in the South Seas, and at different times has visited Samoa, the New Hebrides, Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia, and the Cook Islands. Never before, however, has he visited tihe Solomons, where he saw phases of life unlike anything he had hitherto seen. Mr. Allan "left Sydney in October in Messrs. Level Bros, fine steamer KauJambangra, and or November 5 he reached Tulagi, the seal of Government in the Solomons. Afterwards he visited Gavutu, the headquarter of Messrs. Levers. He was accorded th« seldom granted privilege of being allowec a passage in the firm's recruiting vessel the Hawk, which proceeded to Malaits to recruit native labour. , At six" o'clock in the evening a cannoi would be fired, and its report reverberat ing through the hills, would intimate t< the buslhmen that a recruiting vessel wai in the vicinity. Nearly always some oi them made their way to the foreshore The natives are uncivilised and treacber bus, and dealings with them have to bi characterised by caution. The captaii would proceed ashore in a boat mtumee by six blacks, carrying loaded rifles am behind him would be a covering boat ii charge of the mate and also manned ty six or seven armed "boys." The recruiter accompanying the captaii would negotiate with the savages, anc any of them who consented to go wen taken aboard the steamer Seeking the Recruits. " Immediately the boy stepped into thi , captain's boat," explained Mr. Allan, "th< recruiting fee would be paid over to tihi boy's relatives or to his fellow-villagers It consisted of a case of tobacco, weigh ing about 281b, a parcel containing at axe, two knives, and" a number of pipes a dozen boxes of matches, and last, bul not least, a loin cloth. If the native! desired porpoise teeth, however, 300 oi these would be given with half a case o tobacco and the parcel. If it so happenec that the boy himself desired to reap thi benefit of. his enterprise, the sum of &J was handed to him immediately hi boarded the ship. Sometimes we woulc remain two or three days in these differed passages waiting for recruits, firing the cannon every evening at six o'clock These proceedings were carried out righl through the Malaita, until the required number of reciuits was obtained. "Upon arrival at Gavutu a list was | prepared giving the natives' names anc the passages where they were recruited Then then were taken to Tulagi tobeDaseec by the Government inspector or medica officer, and were then transferred to the various cocoanut nlantations, for a perioc of two years. For the first two years the wage is 10s per month, and food anc accommodation. At the end of this time the recruit may sign on for another IE months But should he be homesick an desire to return to his native village the plantation people must deliver him baci to his passage." Government Supervision. Mr. Allan was asked if the Government supervision m regard to the recruits was strict, and he replied that the reflations were very firmly enforced. ■" H?£ , role that only one-quarter of the boys' wages must be advanced to him duX the term of his engagement, and the balance 75 per cent., must ' be handed over to him in the presence of the Govern ment officer at the "expiration of his term The planters are not allowed to knock the boys about at all, and in cases of in subordination the boys are taken before the commoner or the sub-commissionei and dealt with as is seen fit. • Tho punish