AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14044, 29 April 1920, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

[Br ELECTHIO TBt-ECBAPff—COPT/lIOHT.] (Per Press Association.) f Ans. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received April 29,_at 101.15 a.m. SYDNEY, Apnl 29. Mr J. Benstead. Government Agent for Papua in Svdney, has returned from u visit to Papua. He says that the agitation against Mr Murray's administration is due to tho Government's alleged pampering of the natives, some ot whom 'orofv needed pamperin K or more human.- treatment. Mr Benstead quoted the magisterial report on native labor on a certain plantation m 191/-. which stated that the natives received one meal a dav. consisting ot a iiuarterponnd of rice and a few sweet Potatoes which were given them after they had been working 7J to 9 hours. _ They worked seven davs a week from y.JU in the morning to six at night, tierce do«« were kept and used against the the" natives, who were continually beaten hv the whites. Most ot the natives received no clothes and went naked on the plantation, winch was situated between two and three thou--and feet above the sea level, so that the nights were bitterly cold. >rvornl had died. Mr Benstead concluded that although the treatment described was nor confined to one plantation the majority of the planters treated Thenlaborers well. .... . The Federated Seamen s I nion has nppointcd Mr C. Bourke. of Queensland, delegate to the Geneva Congress. .Tnstice Evving has accepted a Commission from the State Government to ennnire- into the case of the Industrial Workers of the World prisoners The Citv Council has voted £:J0()0 to entertain 'the Prince' of Wales. MELBOURNE. Apnl 29 The first instalment, of 100 of the "ift aeroplanes has arrived. "" The Government is introducing a Ami in the House of Representative- providing for representation of the Northern Territorv in the Federal Parliament, and for an elective Council in Papua, which is not given representation in Parliament.