THE NEW HEBRIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 10

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

WORKING OF CONDOMINIUM.

INDENTURED LABOUR PROBLEM.

FRENCH TRADERS PROSPER

One of the most unusual experiments in government ever made is that under which the New Hebrides Islands have been controlled for more than 20 years pastthe Franco-British Condominium. The theory is that' Britain and France share equally in the responsibilities and privileges of the government of the islands, but in practice many inequalities are bound to creep in. The criticism long made by British residents of the islands is that Britain has taken her responsibilities of government far more seriously than has her partner, with the result that laws aro enforced against the British from which French traders are practically exempt. The impression that on the whole the working of the Condominium is improving, and that abuses are not so flagrant as they have been in the past, was conveyed yesterday by the Rev. W. V. Milne, of Nguna. Mr. Milno was born in Nguna, and has lived all his life there with the exception of school days and furloughs spent in New Zealand. His late father, the Rev. Peter Milne, settled in Nguna in 1870, when there was no other white man on the island, and the natives were in a state of most dangerous untutored savagery. Mr. Milne agrees with the recently-published statement of a British New Hebrides trader that the British and French officials are working together in apparent harmony, but he states that the French officials do not carry out their part of the Condominium regulations forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquor to natives.

Adjourned for Seven Years.

As an illustration of how unsatisfactory at times the Condominium Government could be, it may be stated that during the war time the Spanish Count, who was neutral president of the joint Court went away on long furlough. Without him the Court could not function, but he remained away for seven years, with business for the Court accumulating all the time. At the present time an unsatisfactory feature is that the Belgian who is the Public Prosecutor also holds ths dual and sometimes conflicting office of native advocate.

Speaking of the preponderance of French traders over the British in the islands, Mr. Milne said that in the early days traders could get as many natives as they ■wanted to work on their plantations, but the natives had now learned that they could make more money for themselves by working plantations of their own. The labour problem became so acute that the French met the difficulty by importing Tonkinese labourers indentured for three years. They brought over hundreds at a time, and aimed eventually to have 5000 settled in the group. Of course, a great number died in the New Hebrides. There were none working on his island of Nguna. British Planters Go. The result of obtaining this steady labour was that the French plantations had gone ahead rapidly, while British ones had been going back to bush for want of labour. Many British planters had sold to Frenchmen and left. Two years ago a Royal Commission sat in Vila, the capital of the group, and recommended that Chinese labour should be brought in The result of the recommendation was eagerly awaited, and when it was known that the British Government flatly rejected it many British planters sold. Apparently after its experiences in South Africa, Kenya and Fiji, the British Government had determined to have' nothing more to do with indentured labour.

The Condominium Government had recently been making itself felt by imposing increased import duties, by requiring ali traders to take out licences and by levying a poll tax on all natives over 16. It had been responsible for good work in distributing efficient medicines that had done much to combat the diseases of hookworm and yaws, from which the natives suffered greatly. Word has come lately from the islands of a happening that may lead to a prohibition of liquor by agreement among the traders. There is no law against giving liquor to Asiatics, and certain British traders have been supplying it to the lonkinoso to such an extent that their usefulness to their French employers is seriously impaired.

Prohibition By Agreement

It is said that tho French traders, thoroughly alarmed, have offered to come to terms on the basis that they will stop supplying liquor to New Hebrides natives if the British will stop supplying it to the Tonkinese.

The New Hebrides group, lying a little to the west of north of New Zealand, extends for 400 miles. Santo, the largest of the islands, is about 70 by 40 miles in extent. The total population is about 50,000. Tho chief product is copra, which is exported in thousands of tons, and considerable trade is also done in cotton, cocoa beans, shell for button-making and sandalwood. It is a curious fact that none of this produce goes to Australia, but all by French steamers to France. Mr. and Mrs. Milno will return to Nguna by tho Melanesian Mission steamer Southern Cross in a fortnight, taking with them a new engine for Mr. Milne's launch and wireless equipment to bring tho lonely island into some direct touch with the outer world.