“Blackbirders” and Their

Crimes Valuable Contribution To History

IT is estimated that, during the “black birding” period in the South Seas— from 1855 to 1904, a matter of 50 years— about 100,000 natives of the Pacific Islands were taken from their homes and carried off to work on plantations in Australia, Fiji and South America. The majority of them never returned.

The horrible story is told by that very competent historian, Mr. Thomas Dun babin (editor of Sydney Sun), in a new book, “Slavers of the South Seas.” The following is from the Melbourne Herald’s review.

The first Kanaka labourers were brought to Australia in 1847 by Benjamin Boyd, of Twofold Bay, to act as shepherds. The experiment was a failure and the trade languished until the outbreak of the Civil War in America, which, because of the Northern blockade, put a premium on cotton. Many plantations were started in Queensland, and the demand for native labour grew steadily.

By the time the short-lived cotton boom

had passed, sugar-growing had taken place and the need for labourers increased still further. During the fifty odd years that the “trade” ran its infamous course, 60,000 Kanakas were brought to Australia, alone. Thousands of others were shipped to Fiji, and hundreds, captured by Peru vian slavers, died jn the guano islands off the coast of South America. The Queensland slave-trade alone almost de populated whole islands in the New Hebrides and Solomon groups.

Ever since white men sailed in Southern waters, there had been a certain amount of blackbirding—chiefly of native women, by sealers and whalers. But it was not until the convict system (virtually a slave system) ended and the sugar plantations in the north put a premium on cheap labour, that the trade reached its heyday.

It attracted the scum of the earth, men so devoid of morality and humanity that they more than challenge comparison with their African compeers. Many of them were arrested, tried and sentenced to terms of imprisonment for their brutali ties, but many escaped sentence on legal technicalities, thanks to the efforts of in terested parties, although the conscience of the Colony as a whole was opposed to the trade.

In the early days, while the black birders had the advantage of firearms over spears and arrows, the odds were in their favour. Later on, as the natives became possessed of guns, things became more even. The Melanesians of the Western Pacific, the best material for slaves, were no easy victims.

“These savages fought back fiercely,” writes Mr. Dunbabin. “The sandal wooders of an earlier day had bought their scented wood with blood, and the blackbirders lost boat’s crew after boat’s crew in their voyages. Many a black birding vessel was cut off by islanders, who massacred all on board. The number of white men killed in the Western islands in the blackbirding days runs into hundreds. Many of them deserved their death; some, like Bishop Patteson, died to expiate the sins of others.”

Pieced together from stray bits gathered from official reports, stories in old news papers, the writings of naval officers, of missionaries and traders, the book is not only a tribute to the author’s industry, but also to the skill with which he has woven a complete picture from such scat tered material, it is far above the average novel in intensity of its interest, drama, and tales of courage and endurance in the face of treachery and death.