Demand For Lugger Crews.

How Labour Conditions are Regulated In Torres Straits.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Thursday Is., Feb. 24.

THE Torres Strait islands supply a considerable portion of the labour required for boats working in the marine industry round these waters.

The island-owned cutters and lug gers, bought by the Islanders out of their own earnings, and held in trust and managed by the Aboriginal De partment of Queensland, absorb about 300 men; and the “masters’ boats,’’ as they are called, belonging to the various companies operating from Thursday Island, take all the island labor they can get, and would take more if it were available.

On the Islanders’ boats, the boys gen erally work on a share system, pay ments varying according to the catch and the price of the particular com modity—M.O.P., trochus, or beche-de mer. For other labor there is a fixed rate, varied annually or otherwise. At the present time, the island boys re ceive £3/5/- per month, plus tucker, when working on the outside boats.

Out of this they contribute a per centage to their own particular Island Fund (which is used for island needs and improvements), and also pay a monthly sum to the Torres Strait Hos pital at Thursday Island, a similar amount being paid on their behalf by their employer.

They are signed on articles at the Shipping Office in the usual way, and are subject to the usual conditions applying to seamen. Only portion of their wages may be drawn each month, the remainder being paid at the time of signing off at the end of the year, when they put a proportion into a savings bank account through the Protector’s Office. Each boy has a Bank card, upon which he or his relatives may operate up to a certain amount if the Protector first sanctions it. Boys of South Sea descent, who may not happen to be under the control of the Aboriginal Department, have their own

bank accounts upon which they operate personally.

For some time, the offices of Ship ping Master and Protector of Aborig inals were combined; but this arrange ment was not satisfactory to the boys or to the various Departments con cerned, and often resulted in the anomaly of a boy who might wish to make a complaint to the Shipping Master finding that the official would be the same person who directed the working of the ship in which he was one of the crew.

It was a difficult position for the official occupying both offices. How ever, this year there is a re arrangement by which the positions are held by separate officials, so that when boys are signed on and off, the Ship ping Master attends for the necessary formalities, with an officer of the Protector’s Department who deals with matters affecting that office.

Another alteration that has come into effect this year is connected with the recruiting of boys for the various boats. The island boats have, accord ing to the ordinary scheme of working, to be first filled up, selection being made by the island councillors; and after that, the surplus labor is available for outside boats. Last year, island boat crews were not selected until late in January, so that other boats were hung up waiting to obtain men, but not able to do so until permission was given for recruiting.

This year, officials of the Depart ment have made arrangements for their boats to be filled early, and get away to work instead of taking the usual Nor’-West spell. Instead of the Thursday Island luggers then going out to the islands to recruit (with the ex ception of one island —Murray, 120 miles out —-and another, which is under mission control, where the employers continue to do their own recruiting),

an arrangement has been made where by the Government ketch brings the boys in to T. I., at a charge of from five to ten shillings a head, after the home recruiting is finished. Arriving at T. I., they can sign up for any em ployer they fancy, and a stipulation is that there must be no coercion as re gards boys working as crews on island boats or for individual employers or companies.

This latter provision is probably a reference to the labor conditions exist ing at a former period under which, according to a regulation then sent out to Island officials, the residents of each island were to “furnish as required such number of able-bodied males over the age of sixteen for employment on pearl ing and fishing boats as the Protector of Aboriginals may order,’ and if the required number did not volunteer for service, the island officials selected them by ballot, the penalty for refus ing duty being £5 or two months.

This produced an unhappy feeling on some of the islands, particularly with regard to the island boats and, though

it is a considerable time since boys were lined up under this regulation which no longer exists, the Department does not countenance what might be regarded as forced labor.

One result of the boys being brought in to T.I. to choose their employers is that there is a keen demand for the available labor as soon as it arrives, so that it becomes a case of the captain who is able to offer the best induce ment getting the best boys. This com petition may tend to give boys a false impression of their own labor value, and it is hoped that some of the un desirable elements which came into re cruiting in the old days, when rum and other things wer e made an enticement may not be re-introduced, both in the interests of the boys themselves and of others. Fortunately, Thursday Island employers will not tolerate their captains obtaining boys by doubtful methods.

There is a percentage of boys who are not suited to swimming or diving, either from physical disability or for other reasons. And there are also those who for domestic reasons do not care to go far away from home to work.

Some of these have their own dinghies, which they work round the home reefs, and of course the old men have their gardens to work.

Taken all round, there are not many unemployed males in the Torres Strait Islands, which, all told, maintain a community of about 3,500 people.

Round Thursday Island itself there are a number who might find employment in the marine industries, but whose up bringing and training in sea life have been somewhat different from that of the Islanders.

At Hammond Island, the Roman Catholic mission is making an effort to equip boys for wage-earning in the marine industries; and in other ways those interested in the welfare of the native and colored community are doing what they can to encourage proficiency so as to make it unneces sary for employers to rely upon in troduced labor. But at present there is not sufficient labor of the requisite standard offering locally.