INDENTURED LABOUR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 5 October 1936, Page 13

INDENTURED LABOUR

SYSTEM IN SAMOA ALTER ATION OPPOSED PROTEST TO GOVERNMENT (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. One of the policy declarations of the Laljoui' Party prior to its success at the last general election was that the indentured" labour system in Samoa should cease, and the Chinese .-and -Melanesia n labourers in the territory he repatriated. There appears to lie an objection to this coua'se among Europeans in Samoa, and a protest has been sent- to the Government against the reported intention to carry out the repatriations. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, when questioned on tho subject, 'stated to-day I hat he had received a communication from Messrs. Smyth and Carruthers, who are member's of the Samoan Legislative Council, suggesting that the labourers should not be repatriated, but the Government bad not considered that question and' had, therefore, not come to any deci-

.\ceoi'ding to the last report on tho mandated territory of Western Samoa, there are . r ;O3 Chinese labourers in the country and 93 Melanesians, all of wrom. are employed on New Zealand reparation estates. . .