LABOUR IN SAMOA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18088, 12 May 1922, Page 6

LABOUR IN SAMOA.

! POSITION OF THE CHINESE i I LIFE OF GREAT FREEDOM | PROTECTIVE REGULATIONS ] | The lob of the Chir.<w« in Wester Samoa, that part of the Group controlle |by Jse.w Zealand, i» approximately 2 5 times better than would be their portio _j in their native land, according to Mi J. J. Green, a civil servant who has re I turned to Wellington after 11 months* a ( Sitmaa, , " Th<; Chinese live a life of absplut [ freedom in Western Samoa," said Mi . Green. " There are very few restriction . on their movements. They may play thei j | national games, pak-a-poo, or other di s j versions known as marking a card, wit J little interruption. They go to the pit ( j tares regularly. They may stay out til 1 1 11 o'clock at night on securing ai paas, . i merely formal transaction. There ar , ! about 500 " free " Chinese there. Th i only restriction placed on their libert; J | hy the authorities is that they must no 'j go'about in groups of more than, five a j a time. Under the present New ZeaJam j administration their lot is 50 per cent i! better than under the Germans. Itemuneration and Charges. '' Let me give you some figures am • I facta regarding the Chinese. fhe hous ! j boy earn. l ! £6 10s a month in wages. Hi j employer lias to board him arid his wif 1 ; and family free of charge. On the planta j tion lie is given a hat and an oversea I and on some of the plantations a suit o j dungarees, without any charge to him | The total cost to the employer of an in I dentured Chinese house boy is about £1 ! 10s per month. This is not all. Lf h j dies on the plantation the employer i ] required to find £100 for ilia burialthi is a recent direction of the Administra tion. The planter has to pay a regula I tax of about £2 10s per month towars ) the cost of his repatriation to China wfaei | his Two years' term of indentured labou I has expired. If he sends money to China j as is his regular custom, the employe I has to meet the ch;trges of transmission ] Many of them send home £2 jfco £3 ; j month and when they reach China the: j are rich men among their kind. Tin plantation labourer gets only 35a a week S but everything is found for him. | " Approximately 800 indentured Chinesi j arrive in Western Samoa every two years | When their time is up many of them d< ] not want to go back, and there are con ! ditions under which they may get permit I to remain. Aa Unforgiving Eaee. " The Chinese are treated better thai j white men," continued Mr. Green. " Yot | cannot chastise them. If you do, yoi | are haled before the magistrate, and i pretty stiff fine is the result. Then thej will never forget you. They cannot over look an injury, and a knife in the bad on some dark night may bo your penalty I remember a case of ;ld interpreter whe was believed to have told lies in the Coun against one of: his countrymen. He wai found one night with his eyes gouged oui and the sinews of his lej.rs severed. And it may seem strange, but most whit* planters and traders have a firm convic tion that the word of a Chinese goes a long way, in evidence, if he has a law suit against a white man. " The prohibition? Well, the white people and the natives are both dissatisfied with it. In the old days the native could get his Icava, the national drink. It has been termed alcoholic, but it would take a bucketful of it to make an average toper unsteady on his legs. The native cannot get it now, and he resorts to the expedient of the ' moonshiner' and the ' bootlegger.' and secretv distills mummy gin, or papaw, which is a dozen times worse than his national beverage The Spur oi Necessity. "Hard wark is unknown. Do not imagine for a mcinent that the Samoans or the Chinese arts bowed down with hard labour from early- morning til! iate evening, The Samoan never works unless he wants money. Ha practically spends his time in eating and drinking, and in other diversions that may not *be mentioned here. The Chinese does aa much work in a week as a white man would do in a forenoon. The half-caste, on the other hand, is a fairly good worker. Ton maytake it as a maxim that the greater the proportion of white blood the greater the volume of work and industry. The Samoan has an economic theory that one often hears expounded by white workers. For instance, the price of copra fell from £35 to £25 per ten. That was enough for hun. He wiil cut no more ccxioanuts till the price is at the former level. The Samoan attends church as often as five times a day, not so much because he is being Christianised, but because there iff no work attached to it. But they honestly like being under the rule of New Zealand, and on that point their Chinese friends are in agreement."