QUEENSLAND SLAVERY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1166, 29 July 1885, Page 4

QUEENSLAND SLAVERY.

A contemporary assorts that the sugar Colony has determined that all Polynesian "labor" now in Queensland are to bo returned to thoir homes. This has sot tho planters up in arms, and a terrible howl is raised against this righteous determination on tho part of the Government. Capital is menaced, and is now looked upon as a rnero puppet, to be used as the hirers think fit. "What do tboso sugar planters caro for tho comfort of their kidnapped Islanders, who die very fast in the trying climate of Northern Queensland from tho unusual strain on their power of endurance ? Not more than one-half of them evor survive the ordeal, and those who do are so broken down and demoralised as to be worse tban useless and dangerous to their less travelled fellows who have escaped the wiles of the recruiting agents, and remain under their native cocoanut palms enjoying their dolec far niente, as only a South. Sea Islan- ! dor knows how to. The determination of the Queensland Government to put down this horrible traffic in human beings ib a just and commendable recognition of their duty to their fellow men, and will raise them considerably in the estimation of all men whose good opinions are worth having. Our only fear is that the G-overament will be sacrificed on the altar of private greed, and tamed out of office for daring to assert that a man with a dark skin has the same rights as hia more fortunate brother, whose epidermis has no tinge of the negro in it, When the.master and mate of one of these slave-traders lay under sentence of death in Brisbane iiot long since for a series of horrible massacres whilst " recruiting " among the Islands, the people in Queensland petitioned the Government in such a powerful manner as to savo the murderers from the gallows. A white man had never been hanged in that colony for tho killing of a black, and G-od willing, the£?e pious petitioners never intended that one should. So they have kept the colony free from stain on its escutcheon, although it was a very close shave with the two wretches, who cowered in the condemned ' coli, trembling with abject fear lest thoy should bo hanged for killing whole canoe loads of islanders who refused to bo " recruited."