Cunning Natives

Rob Solomon Is. Recruiters of £3 per Head

J ABOUR recruiters in the Solomon Is lands are finding condH'ons verv difficult especially those who have to deal with Malaita men.

Malaita natives notoriously are aggres sive and difficult to handle, and now they are displaying a special kind of trickiness.

Natives agreeing to become indentured labourers usually receive £3 when they leave their village (which goes to the chief, and their relations). £3 when they reach the plantation, and £6 on the com pletion of their contract. The first £3 is paid by the recruiter: the native is not actually indentured until he has been brought before the nearest Government official and has “made paper.” The re cruiter takes the risk—he must, other wise the men seldom would leave their villages.

The Malaita men have discovered that they are free men until they actually sign up before the Government-officer. So. in increasing numbers, they are making the trip to the Government station with the recruiter, and then refusing to sign.

The recruiter is quite helpless. Neither he nor the official can force the native to sign. Moreover, he is obliged, under the law, to take the native back to his village. Also, of course, he loses the £3— there is no -way in which he can recover it from the recruit or from the villagers.

Mr. Elkington, of Tulagi, recently brought in seven recruits from a Malaita village. Six of the seven then refused to sign. Mr. Elkington had the pleasure of taking them home again, and losing £3 per head, cash, as well.

It looks as if the time has arrived to counter native sophistication with a little Government authority. The Malaita nat ives are not so primitive that they can not understand that, once money has passed, a legal obligation - has been created.