in Papua

Native Labour Conditions in Papua

Letter to the Editor 1HAVE spent 33 years in Papua, and I can ‘ claim to know something about the indentured labour system. I know of no practicable alternative. Free labour at the present stage of the natives’ mentality is out of the question. I have had natives come to work for me on “contract” as they call it—that is, agree ing to work for a certain time. Then they would come to me, in a few days, and ask me to sign them on, on inden tures, because they knew that they would not stop otherwise. They would get some word from their home by the first boat that came in, and then they would say they wanted to go home. I have had seven leave me in half an hour, and I have had to get prison labour as a con sequence. Not once during my 33 years in the Territory have I had any natives complete their time on “contract,” except it was' of short duration.

The Rev. Mr. Burton calls the wages poor. I have no recollection of any of these churchmen saying that a white man’s wages were poor, 50 years ago. The native has £6, at the least, when he is paid off. He has been well fed and cared for while he was at work. I have paid natives as much as £3/10/- per month after training them for several terms.

I worked for a big Victorian firm of contractors, 48 years ago, and I got no doctor or medicine, or holidays, and I was not paid for any time I was not at work. I had to work 10 hours a day, Saturday included. I neither smoked nor drank, yet I did not collect £6 at the end of the year.

The Rev. Mr. Burton says the medical attention was insignificant. I have not found it so. Any plantation manager, or any other employer of labour, was expected to send a sick boy to the hos pital if the trouble was beyond his know ledge. That meant boat fares in and out, and 2/- a day in the hospital. Major operations were performed, if necessary, and the patient was willing—I have paid £13 fees for one boy. In his village he would not have had the attention and probably would have died.

The moral side of the question I am utterly unable to see. The wife of a boy away at work will be very lucky if she is anything but chaste while he is away —she is too well, looked after. For the boy it matters very little—he does about the same at home or abroad.

In one article Mr. Burton suggested that people be paid some money for their properties and kicked out of the Terri tory. He would not feel very happy if one said that he was not a Christian; but I do not think he* shows a very Christian spirit in his letter. Has the reverend gentleman ever had anything that took the best part of 40 years to build up, and used all his young life doing it? I doubt it, otherwise he would not want to kick people out into the world in their old age to start life over again.

People could not get a fraction of what it cost to build their places. When I came to the Territory the Government was offering inducements to people to settle in the country. He would repudiate all this, with a sweep of his hand, and say, “Get out—you are not wanted here. Die if you like, in making another home, but get out.”

I am, etc.,

W. G. Young.

Papua, April, 1945,