Rabaul House Servant

Problem ''Absent Without Permission"

From a Special Correspondent

Rabaul, Mar. 18.

ris often said that many of the trials experienced by the householder in Rabaul with native servants, are not so much the fault of the servant as of the master or mistress.

The actions of the servant are said, by some, not to change, but that then actions appear more aggravating to the white person, because they themselves have changed in their attitude and out look.

If public opinion in Rabaul is correct, native labour conditions are going from bad to worse. District Court records in dicate that cases of natives “absenting themselves from their work without per mission” are on the increase, and it is not at all unusual for natives to have the idea that all they have to do is to ap proach the authorities, make a request and have their contracts of service termin ated, whether the employer is willing or not.

One such case came before the District Court on March 17, when a native ser vant was charged with being absent from his work without permission. Evidence for the prosecution showed that the native had repeatedly deserted his employer, for days on end; he had been returned under escort of a police-boy, and had almost immediately run away again.

The native's statement from the dock, made in his own language and translated by the Court Interpreter, was to the effect that he ran away because he was tired of working, and that he had too many jobs to do.

On being questioned by the prosecu tion, he said that he knew a native named Simbai and that Simbai was em ployed by a European. He recently met Simbai, who told him to go to this Euro pean, who would help him to terminate his contract. As a result, the deserter said he went to the house of the Euro pean where he stayed all day.

Eventually, the native was apprehended and charged. The Magistrate sentenced him to imprisonment for two weeks.

After spending a fortnight in the local gaol, the employer still being deprived of his services, he will return and, in all probability, create more trouble for his employer, as a result of the encourage ment given to him to terminate his con tract.

These are the things—small though they may be —which aggravate the native labour position in the Mandated Territory, and call for remedial measures.

EDITORIAL NOTE; Our correspon dent uses careful language. Evidently, what he is trying to say is that some European planter, near Rabaul, is en couraging natives to break their labour contracts and defy their employers. If that is so, such a European should be dealt with by the authorities, quickly and sternly.

Mr. H. B. Smith, of Savu Savu, son of one of the early Fiji pioneers, Dr.

Henry Backhouse Smith, died in the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, recently, at the age of 60. He was master of an inter-island trading vessel for many years, before retiring to his plantation at Natewa Bay.