ON A TOBACCO PLANTATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20043, 4 September 1920, Page 2

ON A TOBACCO PLANTATION.

GROWER AND HIS HELPERS THE GREAT CALL COMES. No. I. i Up at 5.30 a.m., ami after a cup of , coffee and a banana, start the day's round by calling the roll of the eighty native labourers who arc divided into gangs under head boys, called capitaos. As each capita©. reports the number of his gang present ho gets a ticket for each ono before starting the day’s work. The system of working is as follows: Labour is all voluntary—-the employee usually staling how many monthfc he will work. . If the boys (all natives are called boys, irrespective of their ages) are recruited from a distance—say ICO miles away—they arc taken to the Native Commissioner, and the terms of their work' and pay are explained to them. This is supposed to ensure that the boy will be paid, and also that hn 'Will not run away before hia time is up. e But it really is a matter of the reputation of the employer, whether hiboys work or run away. The usual wage is 3s a month and Is a month for food money in the dry season— May to November—and 4s,' and Is 6d food money—December to April—the wet season, Each boy has a ticket with his name, rate of pay and date of starting on it. This is divided into thirty small squares, each square denoting ono day. The employer initials a square every day as the capitao returns the tickets in the evening, or when the work is dote. ' ; .Some of the hoys are making bricks, usually ant heaps puddled well and moulded. The finished cost per thousand is 3s. Others are getting the nurseries ready for the coming season. Alt tobacco is raised in nurseries, and transplanted into the field during the rains. Some aro cutting bamboo for building, others sawing mahogany into boards and planks, while others again aro hoeing the land and doing tho thousand and one jobs 'inseparable from planting life. By eight o’clock all the gangs will be well at work, so return for ray breakfast, usually a pawpaw, somo omelette, or bacon and eggs, with good locally-grown coffee to finish with. We never use chicory in our coffee—we drink it neat. After breakfast a visit of inspection around the cows—they each average a bottle of milk a daythen to tho different gangs to see they ire not scamping. I decided tb-da'v to plant another' aero of oranges and lemons, so will prepare a couple of beds alongside the tobacco nurseries, and tho same labour will attend to them all. Counted the bricks made yesterday and bid one man made only 1100 instead of 1200—his piecework. Told him that unless ho made 1300 to-day ■ to make up for yesterday’s shortage I would not sign his ticket, so ho will lose a day’s work. He agrees with a grin m his sablo features—merely proving ■ hat the shortage was a try-on. Find the bricklayers half an inch out on the wall of tho tobacco curing barn, so order it to be taken down again for the last 2ft. More carelessness, so will not mark the foreman’s ticket. He 'ets £1 a month and should know better. , Lunch from 12 to 3 p.m., then another visit around the plantation. Somo of the boys are finishing their piecework, and most of them will bo away to their huts by four o’clock. My house-boy comes down to tell me a villager has just seen a herd of eland tboufc a mile away, so what about it? He has brought my rifle and a few rounds with him on spec, knotting well that I will go. I agree, but tell him to bring the shot gun, as we may sec somo guinea fowl or quail. A halfhour tramp with tho villager as guide brings us on toe spoor of a herd of twelve eland. This part of the country is not very good for game, there being too many native gardens around, besides tho pite which the natives dig. to oatch anything eatable at all. At last tt'o get a glimpse ot the herd, about 4CO yards off, in a valley, and as the wind is favourable we hasten to get within range before they get into the bamboo thicket higher up. Once there wo will never get near them, besides it is nearly impossible to force one’s wjay through, and the dead banvboOs crack like pistol shots if ono steps on them. But our luck was in—l got a. nice bead on tlio bull eland at SO varcls, and h© went down with an explosive bullet in his lungs. Running up I finished him off, but not before my boy cut his throat. No Mahommedan will eat moat unless bo has cut its throat first. As I _ was only after meat for the pot I did not follow the remainder of tho herd, which crashed through the bamboos with noise enough to wake tho dead- An eland is the size of an os, and weighs 10001b. Leaving my boy to skin and cul it up I took the*villager back witu nio to the house, now three miles away, to guide twenty boys out to carry the meat in. I had a bath and a ‘'sundowner,'’ feeling I had earned it. My mail boy has returned from Fort. Jameson, 27 miles away, with my mail

md rumours of war. Can it moan we U'e in for the big World War at last? Vm just writing a chit to my neighbour Kennedy, two miles away, to .(-■onto over and discuss the nows, when •in ho comes. He is as excited ns a youngster of sixteen, although he is nearly forty, and a. hard-bitten man at that. Wo decide to have a few ‘•sundowners 5 ’ on it and continue dm hopes and fears that the jolly thing will not bo overuntil we can get there to join in. We both agree we must go and never, mind the plantations. We will got someone to. look, after them Kennedy stayed to dinner and would hardly go home at eleven o’clock-said he could not sleep; at any rate. We are both going into the township tomorrow to see if it is true; native rumour usually is only too true. After he has gone I map out enough work to keep the boys going for a month, hoping to get someone to manage the place before then. Next morning, after allocating the work—sevc. 1 1 boys are at work to-day who were away yesterday,-they reckon to come in for a teed ot fresh meat off the eland shot last night, have a hasty breakfast and start for Fort Jameson on my pushhike, picking up Kennedy en route. We have 1500 ft rise to push the bikes up, so talking is " taboo ” until we reach the summit. A. nice spin of ten miles on fairly easy countrv brings us to Knchiberi Mission, where the Pere Diane of Algiers are hard at work teaching the native the dignity of lahour.first and the. ethi.es oLChristianity afterwards. FVom the Father Superior we leWn that the dogs of war are loose find all Europe ablaze with the lust to kill. Although the Reverend Father had been A missionary for twenty-five years, bis eyes gleamed with desire ns he spoke of his beloved La Bello France and her lost provinces. Perhaps a word about this mission will not lie out of place. The missionaries, both priests and lay brothers, are trained in the seminaries of the order in Algeria for not less than eight years before being sent out into the world to convert the heathen. They all have a good, knowledge of medicine and general farming, 'besides their theological training. The Pere Blanc, or White Fathers as they are genexally ; known, a.re courteous and well cducat- : cd, and make everyone equally welcome at their mission whether of their creed of not. They receive no pay and never go back to their own country. The Father Superior told me he did not want, to go back while he was well, and lie could not when he was ill. They receive a grant of £1 per man per month from their central fund, and on that they, must live, Thoy work jolly hard, and soon get a kitchen garden and orchard going, and so manage to lire fairly well after the first few years. After a short rest to have a cup ot tea, Kennedy and I started again on the fifteen miles in to Fort Jameson. , where we found everyone in the club ! discussing the war and the prospects of joining up. A visit to the Magistrate. ; who is the senior civil official, sobn in-| formed us as to the progress made in forming a local force to move to the 1 German border, 470 miles away. Ke told ns that the Government had aslteri us to stay and serve locally, as We would be able to take service in the field at once, knowing the language and habits of the natices. If we went Home we would probably he turned down as unlit after being in the tropics so long. There seemed sOme sense in this, so wo decided to put our names down for the local force, but only on condition- it was in harness and moving towards the border in reasonable time. Nearly everyone was keen to go, and why not? Who could read of the mobilisation of England’s mighty navy and their small, but nevor vanquished army—now on its mettle against the most advertised and numerous armv in the world—withoutwishing to bo there too? (The next article of this scries will appear in Tuesday’s “Star.”)