"Blackbirding" in

Last Century How Kanaka Labour Came Jo Australia

BETWEEN 1866 and 1891, no fewer than 47,758 natives of the Pacific Islands, principally from the Solo mons, were brought to work in Queens land. One Governor of Queensland (Sir George Bowen) had declared that this South Sea labour would make that State “rich beyond the dreams of avarice’’.

The difficulty in obtaining correct fig ures in relation to this trade was empha sised by Mr. Alfred E. Stephen, presi dent of the Pacific Islands Society, in an interesting presidential address to members on April 30. Dr. Pa ton, the famous missionary, he said, once declared that no fewer than 70,000 healthy lads and girls had been taken from the New Hebrides alone.

Tracing its development, Mr. Stephen said that when convict transportation ceased in Australia, in 1840, the necessity for cheap labour for developmental pur poses became a question of considerable moment. Benjamin Boyd (1796-1850), an enterprising Scot, attempted to secure South Sea Islanders to supplant 800 ticket-of-leave men and other employees.

In 1847, he recruited natives from New Hebrides, Rotuma, and the Lovalty Islands. The kanakas were to get from £l6 to £2O annually, nlus rations, and they were sent to Boyd’s extensive inland holdings. However, the natives had no aptitude for agricultural work, suffered from the cold, and many ran away. The experiment' was not regarded as a suc cess. Boyd lost his life in the Solomons, three years later.

About 1863, Captain Robert Towns recruited more natives for work on cot ton plantations, on the Logan River.

They were to be paid 10/- per month, plus rations, clothing, and housing. The warmer Queensland climate suited the kanakas, and, though there was some public agitation against their entrance, this venture was more successful. By 1867 seven vessels were emnloyed in thp trade, and 1760 islanders had been landed in Queensland.

Ross Lewin. a sandalwood trader, was the first recruiting agent, but others soon engaged in the trade By 1868 returned boys, who had acquired some English, were being utilised as recruiters.

“The treatment of the kanakas in Queensland was. on the whole, satisfac tory,” said Mr. Stephen, “but reports soon came to hand of atrocities in the recruit ing field. Natives, it was said, were kid napped by the hundreds, often with brutality. Efforts were made to regulate the trade by the Queensland Govern ment; but. graduallv, nublic opinion hardened against it.” By 1906 ,the impor tation of kanakas had ceased.

The speaker attributed the opposition to the trade as emanating, in the main, from missionaries. “They saw the evils which were kept back from the planters and others to whom the kanakas were assigned, especially those that arose from the introduction of firearms, opium, and liquor,” he added, “and they also had personal knowledge of the methods adopted by certain of the more unscru pulous traders.”

Mr. S. C. and Mrs. Ford, of Suva, Fiji, were in Melbourne, Vic., at the end of last month. Mr. Ford, who is an officer of the Bank of NSW in Fiji, is spending a short holiday in Australia.