52 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



any luxuries beyond a stick of tobacco a week. The 

 cost to a native of keeping a wife can hardly be less 

 than this; but his wages, as a rule, only amount to 

 6 a year. In other words, it is very difficult to see 

 how a native can in Papua support a wife and family 

 on his ordinary wage. It may well be that his wife 

 can at times earn something for herself, and it may be 

 that at places she can buy native food cheaply; but 

 I believe the general experience is that in the end it is 

 cheaper and more economical to buy rice rather than 

 plant native food. The decisive factor in inducing a 

 native to leave his home the first time for work is, I 

 believe, a desire to see more of the world, with at times 

 the hope of earning sufficient wealth to buy a wife. 

 These factors act with less effect a second time a 

 native is asked to go to work. 



" It is certainly a great inducement to a native to go 

 to work if he knows definitely where he is going to 

 work, if he knows from direct information given him 

 by his own relatives and friends that it is a comfortable 

 place, if he knows that he will always have some one 

 of his own friends whom he can look to be his leader 

 and who is capable of stating his case to his employer 

 if he should have any grievances, and if his immediate 

 employer will listen to and deal sympathetically with 

 any grievances which may arise. If these conditions 

 are met I see no reason why natives should not be 

 supplied continuously for work on the plantations in 

 the near future." 



