"Penal Sanctions"—And

Indentured Labour

By Mollie Lett

rE abolition of labour contracts, that is, indentured labour, was a mea sure Sir Hubert Murray feared would be introduced before the natives were ready for it. Sir John Harris, of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Society, Lon don, wrote, only in May, 1939, to Sir Hubert that the whole subject of labour contracts was being considered, and that abolition of indentured labour and penal sanctions was possible.

With the abolition of penal sanctions, settlers will have to be prepared to allow natives to break contracts with impunity;

for, as a defendant in a civil action, a native is worthless. Having no money except his wages, and his lands being secure, he can do as he chooses. Sir Hubert wrote on the subject only a short time before he died. “Personally,” he stated, “I should be glad to see inden tured labour replaced by free labour, but I do not think that this will come about until the native has developed a sense of responsibility that will hold him to his contract without penal sanctions; and it appears to me that when we can do with out penal sanctions, we can do without indentured labour altogether.”

The Rev. J. W. Dixon, of the Methodist Mission, is expected to leave for Papua shortly.