Fijians Annoy European
pp. 27-28 · Read in the full issue
Waterside Loafers
CERTAIN gentlemen of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union have been snarling angrily because some newspaper correspondents compared the achievements of the Aucklanders in handling ships’ cargo with what can be done in Suva harbour with Fijian labour.
They insist that they can “knock spots’’ off the native labourers, even while tak ing time off for tea, and smokes, and other privileges.
I am reminded of an occasion in July, 1945, when I travelled from Sydney to Fiji in an American freighter. The skip per knew the amount of cargo he had
to un l° a d and load in Suva; and, fresh from his experiences in the ports of Sydney and Melbourne, he calculated that his ship would lie in Suva harbour for at least a week. We arrived on a Monday morning, and I arranged to have dinner with him on the following Thursday evening. But we calculated without teboiir. Those men, working steadily and happily—if one may judge from tneir occasional singing—cleaned up the whole job of discharge and loading noon on Wednesday, and the ship was gone on Wednesday evening. , For sheer, deliberate laziness and cal culated loafing, I never have witnessed anything equal to what I have seen in the seaports of Australia and New Zea land in recent years—R.W.R.
Mr. J. B. Wright, formerly of the Cook Islands Government Service, has now taken over as Collector of Customs and Taxes at Apia, succeeding Mr. P. H.
Pearce, who has returned to New Zealand.
Miss Nat. McLeod, MA, who was for merly a teacher at Rotorua High School, New Zealand, has been appointed a teacher at the Ifi Ifi School; in Samoa, and travelled there by the August “Matua.” Miss O. M, Mays, MA, who also was on Rotorua High School staff, has been appointed to the Malifa School, in Samoa.