What Is An "Indentured"
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
Labourer
(A Letter to the Editor) rE Australian Minister for Territories, in a speech on May 13, said that the Papua-New Guinea Administrator considers indentured labour a form of slavery. This is hard to believe. Here we say “indentured”—why, I do not know.
A lad is apprenticed to a trade by in denture, but if I sign myself to a com pany for a term of employment, it is an agreement. I have worked under an agreement that meant crossing the ocean.
I was free, as the native is here, to sign it or not. In my case, I got my passage home again if I completed my service of two years. I got no wages or medical at tention if I did not work. No passage if I was discharged for failing to attend to my job, or if I failed through ill-health.
The native here gets all of these things and full wages, should I discharge him before his time is expired—unless it is mutual. The native knows perfectly well that he can stop at home, or come and sign on. He also knows just as well as I did what he is doing. Let us hope that historians will let the native know that the Sydney harbour bridge was partly built by “slave labour.” Dorman Long had indentured labourers on it.
I am, etc..,
W. G. Young.
Samarai, Papua.