Runaway Labourers

Serious Industrial and Social Problems in NG

TITHE native Legislative Councillor X Simogun (he was decorated for war services and is held in high regard by Europeans) made an urgent plea to the Council in July on behalf of the numerous Sepik area villages which he represents.

He said that 150 village elders had met him before he left for Moresby, and had asked him to tell the Government that, as a result of unbalanced recruiting, the whole area now was most seriously short of young men; and the effect, from the social, industrial and food production standpoints, was bad.

Simogun said, also, that there were not enough official patrols through his area, with the result that the Government did not get information about their plight.

Further, the Administration’s practice of moving District officials elsewhere, after they had oecome well known to the people of the area, had a bad effect. He pleaded that the officers who came and learned their conditions and their ways should be allowed to remain with them for a longer period.

SIMOGUN’S appeal has given colour to very strong action which has just been taken by

the New Guinea Planters’ Association, of Rabaul, in relation to what is described as the failure of the Native Labour Ordinance. . ...

The Association, in anger and despair over the failure of Territones Minister Hasluck to attend to its urgent representations, is now M J r n J^ e L a tbP i the Prime Minister of Austiaha.

The Native Labour Ordinance (NLO) was bequeathed to the present Administration by the Ward- Murray regime of the post-war period. Before the war, natives could be recruited for labour on a three years’ contract: and if the native ran away from his employer,

he could be arrested and brought back by the police and, if still re sistant, he could be gaoled. The Ward-Murray regime described this as slavery; and, as part of its cam paign against private enterprise, it reduced the native labour contract period to one year, and wiped out penal provisions.

As time passed, and the natives discovered that they could leave at any time without penalty, the posi tion steadily deteriorated, until to day (according to Mr. Don Barrett, the planters’ representative on the Council) there are large numbers of broken-contract labourers wand ering about the Territories, living upon the native communities, work ing how and when they please as

casuals, and causing increasing social trouble and economic disturba nce. . . . ..

The present Australian Minister tried to improve matters by extending the contract period to two years, with option of another year; but because of that Minister’s extreme timidity in political matters nothing has been done to introduce a penal clause. A native may walk off a few months after his employer has paid heavily for his recruitment, transport, equipment and repatriation; and the employer has no remedy except a civil law action —which, in the case of an elusive New Guinea labourer, would be absurd ALTHOUGH his native has disnnnpnrpd thp pmninvpr ctm ic ha ear re%oLmr P for r his tlll re 1 patriation. He has been forced to deposit with the Administration a sum to cover repatriation costs, Under the present law, the employer cannot get a refund of that money. The Association has fought, in vain, for amendments in the Ordinance to provide:

® Refund of the transport money to the employer if the runaway native has not been repatriated within three months from the time h breaks his con tract; , . . , • Some definite form of pumsh f° ensure that the native will have placed upon him the same compulsion to observe the labour agreement as does the employer; • Enforcement of the provisions of the NLO, so that unscrupulous employers, who are responsible for neither recruitment fees nor trans port, cannot employ or get benefits from a broken-contract labourer. . .. . , , . , As the Minister and Admimstra tion have done nothing to improve the position, after eight months of pleas and discussions, the Associa tion has decided to appeal for relief Prime lster and P e °P le - It emphasises that the increas ing number of wandering and un attached and unrepatriated labour ers is creating a double social evil —namely (a) these irresponsible men are loafing about the towns, getting into mischief and living

upon the native villagers and (b) their absence from their own villages is causing grievous social problems, as described in the Coun cil by Simogun.

If Father M. H. Lelong, noted eth nologist, passed through Sydney on his way to New Guinea where he will carry out research studies among the Melanesians. A French man, editor of the famous journal Vie Intellectuelle and the author of 15 books on ethnology, Father Lelong has lived among the primitive races in Africa and S.

America, and recently spent several months in Japan among the peasants of the North.