LASCAR LABOUR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13058, 28 April 1910, Page 5

LASCAR LABOUR.

THE P. AMD 0. SAILORS. Suggested Special Tax. The*Company’s" View. Press Association.— 'l elegraph .—Copyright Received April. 28, 9.55 a.m. SYDNEY, April 28. , Mr Trelawnoy, superintendent of , the Peninsular and Oriental Company, refer•ring to New Zealand complaints about the Auckland: service, -and the suggestion of a special tax on the service' attributed to Mr A. Fisher, declared, that the company was not greatly concerned in the matter. ,1110 Auckland trips had proved satisfactory, and would bo resumed in October, but outside of the European. passenger season, the service would not, pay, • Every trip cost: about .£2OOO, which was paid in Auckland for New Zealand produce. By far the greater number of passengers were booked to and from Europe. With reference to the suggested tax, the ports of clearance and destination are London and Auckland, neither port being in the Commonwealth. It seems to him, therefore, that to attempt.the special taxation of the company’s vessels on the ground that it employed Indian labour would be a matter for the Imperial Government. Indians were citizens of the Empire, and there appeared to be some inconsistency in the fact that, while Australia and New Zealand are within the Empire, there should be a. refusal to acknowledge the status which the Empire has given to its Indian citizens. The company does not employ Lascars ■ because they are cheap. They cost little, if anything, less than British handsbut they employed Lascars be-' cause it was practically impossible to get a sufficient number of trustworthy British hands to run the company’s many services in the way they must be run for traffic. Even if the Commonwealth were to pay a subsidy instead of imposing a tax, it would make no difference to the fact that the best class of white labour was not obtainable for high-speed boats in the tropics. Failing the best, the company employed the best it could get, acclimatised to tropical labour.