The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1920. LABOUR IN THE ISLANDS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16721, 23 April 1920, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1920. LABOUR IN THE ISLANDS.

Perhaps the most difficult problem New Zealand lias to tackle in connection with its mandate over Samoa is that of providing labour lor the plantations. The same problem presents itself in Fiji. It is generally assumed that the Samoans and Fijians will not work, no more at least than is necessary to provide themselves with food and requirements, which are so modest—and Nature is so bountiful a mother'—that a little, work is all that is required to keep them i .what they regard as comfort. Hence the idea mat labour must bo imported from India, China, Niue Island, or other Pacific Is-

.reels, whose people arc more inclined to work or are more amen-

a>)e to discipline. Coolies from India.and China are chiefly relied upon, but there are certain objections, not raised by Labour leaders alone, to a continuance of the system of importing these Eastern races, and another source of Labour is sought. Sir Alfred Robin, who lias lately spent some time in Samoa, lias come back apparently with the idea that the Samoans themselves can be induced to undertake the work on the plantations and tho imported labour be dispensed with. He denies that the. Samoans are lazy. •-ovists passing through the Islands see them doing nothing in the middle of the clay, but lie says that is the most sensible thing for them to do during the great heat of the day. They, however, work in the early morning and have half their day’s work done before the tourists are out and about. To show that they arc not lazy be says that three-fourths of the output of copra, the main product of the Islands, is grown and brought to the stores for sale b native Samoans. Their bare feet, bringing down IDOIb. loads of copra, etc., have worn a deep path in the bard lava bed they pass over on the way to the stores. In Fiji imported coolies are still more relied upon than in Samoa, but a ■contributor to the Polynesian Gazette, Mr. Ronald A. Herrick, apparently a planter, believes the native Fijians can be utilised to fill the labour requirements. They must not, however, be treated as the imported coolies are; they will not submit to that kind of thing. Already, according.

to Mr. Derrick, the native Fijians are doinsr more than people realise. Many successful planters are doing: well with Fijian labour exclusively, hut they do not treat their labour in the way the coolies are treated. Ho admits that the Fijians do not now work very hard or long hours, and there arc many more thing's the'- do or don’t do. But he maintains that they can bp. made over into enterprising' and industrious citizens. Hot, however by legislation or regulations, but bv providing an incentive from within each individual Fijian in the way of increasing bis wants and desires by education, not ill purely cultural subjects such as are demanded for while children, but in improved modes of life and work. If a Fijian feels the need of anything strongly enough lie will work for it. At present his wants arc small and he can satisfy them without much efforl. But if he can be taught to want a good house and to furnish it bo will work to earn the money needed to build a bouse and furnish it . Mr.''Derrick deprecates the kind of education which turns out the young Fijian with a swelled “head and a firm conviction that “education” and “leisure” are synonymous terms and that labour is degrading. It should be the very opposite of that. These opinions seem in be well worthy of the attention of the rtovernmenis which have the control of the Islands, for it is clear that some better mode of securing flic labour requisite for carrying on the industries of the Islands than that in vogue now must be found.