Dwindling Labour In
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
Solomons
WHEN Captain Georgetti (who is accompanied by his wife) ar rived in the Solomons from New Zealand with his little ship Loma to engage in general trade and recruiting, he was immediately engaged by the Vanikoro Timber Co. to proceed to the island of Tikopia to recruit labour there for the timber industry at Vanikoro (South Solomons).
The Vanikoro timber industry is flourishing; but its problem is to get adequate labour. Formerly, the company engaged Santa Cruz and Reef Islands natives at £2 per month and all found; but lately the latter have intimated that, while they will go to Levers Plantations at those rates, they want £4 per month and bigger rations for the heavier work of the timber industry.
Levers Pacific Plantations have experimented with Polynesian-type natives from Tikopia and Rennell islands; but the latter suffered so much from pulmonary complaints, malaria and home-sickness that they were not a success.
The Vanikoro timber people are determined not to pay increased rates for local natives. If the new recruits from Tikopia are not a success they may try to get labour from Malaita; and if Malaita men are not useful they may seek to bring in Italian labourers from Queensland, or even direct from Italy.