THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1920. INDENTURED LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17538, 2 August 1920, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1920. INDENTURED LABOUR.

♦ It will be a matter of widespread regret that the extreme Labour section of the House of Representatives has made the question of indentured labour in Samoa an occasion of mere party politics. By dividing the House on an amendment hostile to the use of such labour in Western Samoa, the leader of that section has posed as a valiant champion of the rights of the enslaved, and belauded his party as the knight errants of a humanitarian crusade. This selflaudation did not deceive the House, nor will it hoodwink the country. The ruse will be seen for what it is an attempt to make party capital out of a situation calling for high statesmanship. The question of labour in the Pacific is admittedly difficult, and it involves, at the present- juncture throughout the South Seas, large and momentous issues. T'.-' ignore such issues, and use the national need to face them as an opportunity for party advantage, is a degradation of politics. Especially meriting reprobation is Mr. Holland's obvious effort to brand those hesitating to condemn indentured labour as the seekers of commercial gain at the expense of human happiness. The issue is not one between wealth and well-being. Among those convinced of the inevitableness of indentured labour in Samoa are many who care as little for dividends as Mr. Holland and his henchmen profess to care. Many a selfless missionary, who has given proof of a sincere love for needy and untutored peoples by choosing to share for years the limits of their pagan life in preference to noising their needs in cheap heroics from, the comfort of a Parliamentary bench, has admitted the necessity for such labour at present. Capable and kindly administrators in the Western Pacific, with fuller knowledge than is obtainable by touristseekers after material for political propaganda, have set on record their approval of the system. Experienced commanders in the British Navy, speaking but of an intimate knowledge of the Pacific that the days. of a beneficent "government by commodore" gave them, have borne the same witness. That, in the days of free-lance trading in the Pacific, there were perpetrated grossly cruel barbarities in the recruiting and employment of plantation labour no one will deny. Kidnapping and enslavement were shamefully prevalent. They evoked the bitter protests of missionaries and administrators and naval men long before a Labour Party found in them a handy arsenal for party warfare. But they were not universally characteristic of the use of native and imported labour in even those days of loose administration and they are not inevitable accompaniments of indentured labour under all circumstances. With the development of the higher humanitarianism that has characterised the last century, they have been increasingly . reprobated ; and the improvement in plantation conditions that such a - development dictated has become growingly possible through more efficient administration. Queensland's experience, up to the days of the Commonwealth's establishment, shows what improved administration can accomplish. At first, without efficient supervision, abuses were common. Later, under Sir Samuel Griffith's premiership, the Kanakas " were carefully inspected, properly housed, fully fed, and given every chance of comfort. They were recruited by vessels under Government control, and were not allowed to engage on the plantations until they thoroughly understood what they . were brought to, Australia to do." That is the testimony of one whom Sir William MacGregor has appraised as a trustworthy writer. In 1900 a New Hebrides missionary paid a visit of inspection to Queensland to inquire into the conditions among the natives from his island (Tongoa) who were working on the plantations. He reported favourably. As administration throughout the Pacific becomes more efficient, the instance that Queensland presents of diminishing abuse should be capable of reproduction everywhere. Already, as the missionaries there declare, the danger of abuse in Samoa may be reduced to the vanishing point. It all depends on administration. An amendment of procedure can obviate the abolition of the system. In the earlier days of the English apprentice system, oppression was common ; but apprenticeship has been retained, and abuses eliminated by the operation of good British law. That points the way in this related problem. Possessing great capacity for contributing to the world's pressing need for some commodities, but threat- ? ened by a devastating insect pest, • Samoa calls for cultivation. It cannot be done by white labour; climatic conditions make that impossible. The Samoans themselves are neither capable nor willing to undertake the requisite toil. The alternative remains—Samoa a waste, or tilled by imported labour of a suit-

able type. Imported labour implies "somei S system « of r recruiting •'. and .engagement; and the white man's burden involves administration that will safeguard all human interests. •Surely we are not in this late day; '- so bankrupt in moral fibre as to declare the task of such administration beyond us. Recruiting by Government agencies and in conjunction with missionary authorities, clearly communicated conditions of employment, inviolably preserved rights of re-engagement on the part of the labourers, good conditions of living, strict supervision of plantation toil, full opportunities of education and recreation, and a wise arrangement for repatriationthese desiderata are not beyond achievement. Taught by the painful lessons of the past, and prompted by a humanitarian sympathy that is by no means the monopoly of any Labour Party, we may venture on the task of producing in Western Samoa conditions that will save it for eventual Samoan enjoyment in a day when. imported labour may have become an outgrown need.