LABOR IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4233, 14 October 1874, Page 3

LABOR IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

(From tbs Melbourne Aye.) The efforts of the British Government to suppress the .'labor traffic in the South Seas appear to have been thoroughly unsuccessful. The Rev. Dr. Steel, who lias just returned from a cruise through the New Hebrides, where he attended a Synod of the Presbyterian missionaries, has written to the Sydney Herald that the evils connected with the traffic have not sensibly, diminished. The mischief seems to be chiefly wrought by vessels flying the French flag, and commanded by Englishmen. A large trade in humafi beings is now earned on between the islands and New Caledonia. Dr. Steel mentions several incidents, some of which occurred as late as tire end of last year, which would almost equal in atrocity the Carl outrage itself; and he points out one cause which sooner or later must lead to reprisals on the part of the islanders. Laborers are taken to Fiji and engaged for three jears, but before the end of their terra their employer is bankrupt, and.there is no chance of the men either obtaining pjayment or being sent home. Consul Layard has already, in recommending the employment of these Polynesians for a fourth year under his own supers vision, shown that otherwise “the lives of white men landing on the islands would be sacrificed to the ignorant revenge of unpaid savages, smarting “ under their wrongs.” Another fruitful-cause of evil is the return of islanders from Fiji or Queensland armed with muskets and rifles, by the aid of which they indulge in ail sorts of wicked practices. Altogether the aspect of affairs in the South Sea Islands seems extremely gloomy. The remedial measures which Dr. Steel suggests are the appointment of a consular officer armed with magisterial authority to cruise constantly among the islands, and the prohibition by the Imperial Government of tlie sale to the natives of firearms. The annexation of Fiji would do much to remove the evils, so far as British subjects are concerned ; but now that vessels flying other flags than that of Britain are engaged in the so-called labor traffic, it is impossible for any English cruiser to do much. The only means of suppressing the abominable system of kidnapping is to compel the planters to treat their servants-fairly, and to destroy the market by tailing precautions to prevent Polynesians illegally obtained from being of any commercial value. If the men-stealers could not find purchasers for their victims, there would be.no temptation to Kidnap,