AUSTRALASIA. 



of $3,664,344 of specie imported, amounting 

 to $4,848,994. This gain was largely due to 

 the purchases of colonists who traveled by the 

 American route and visited the markets and 

 manufactories of the United States on their 

 way to or from Europe. The service under 

 the Pacific Mail Company's contract was per- 

 formed by three steamers, one belonging to 

 the company, and two to John Elder, of Glas- 

 gow. Although the American companies re- 

 fused to accept both sea and inland postage, a 

 combination was formed between the house 

 of Elder and that of Spreckels, of San Fran- 

 cisco, by which the route will be continued 

 from Nov. 21 by two English and one Ameri- 

 can steamer, as before, receiving from the 

 American Government sea-postage only, about 

 $150,000 a year. 



The Labor-Traffic in the Southern Pacific. The 

 Queensland Ministry represents a popular party 

 that is opposed to any kind of black labor, 

 coolie, Chinese, Malay, or Kanaka. One of 

 their first enactments was a measure amend- 

 ing the Pacific Islands Laborers act of 1880. 

 They also framed more stringent regulations 

 for the labor trade, which the sugar-planters 

 named the "cast-iron rules," by which they 

 say that the sugar industry has been ruined. 

 The capitalists interested in the sugar planta- 

 tions went so far as to demand the separation 

 of Northern Queensland, the sugar-growing 

 district, from the colony. The Hopeful trials 

 of 1884 proved, however, that the system of 

 Government inspection and the other checks 

 .provided in the new regulations were of no 

 avail against the worst iniquities of the traffic. 

 The revelations of these trials induced the Gov- 

 ernment to appoint a commission to investi- 

 gate the methods pursued by recruiting agents 

 and masters and crews of labor-ships in re- 

 cruiting the natives of New Guinea and the 

 Luisiade and D'Entrecasteaux groups of islands. 

 The commissioners' report is based on the in- 

 vestigation of eight voyages, in connection with 

 which nearly five hundred witnesses were ex- 

 amined.' In all these voyages recruiting was 

 conducted from the canoes of the natives, 

 which were encountered on the fishing-grounds 

 in the coral reefs, or were paddled out to re- 

 con uoiter the labor-ships, or to barter fruits 

 for tobacco. For the latter purpose the island- 

 ers often came aboard the vessels. For toma- 

 hawks, knives, tobacco, and calico, temptingly 

 displayed by the recruiting agents, parents or 

 relatives were persuaded to sell youths to the 

 slave-dealers. Their authority over the indi- 

 viduals thus recruited was not inquired into, 

 and when the latter resisted they were com- 

 pelled to go by force and threats. The terms 

 of service and the duration of their exile were 

 seldom known to any of the natives concerned 

 in the bargain. In the voyage of the Hope- 

 ful, canoes were wrecked, and their occupants 

 captured in the water, raids were made on 

 shore, villages burned, and many persons mur- 

 dered. A large proportion of the Kanakas 



crammed into the hold of the ship were vio- 

 lently kidnapped. Similar practices took place 

 in one of the other voyages. In the other cases 

 the natives were decoyed away on the pretense 

 of employment on shipboard or in the beche- 

 de-mer fisheries for a few days or weeks, or of 

 a pleasure-trip to " white man's island." In 

 no instance were they regularly engaged, as 

 the law prescribed, for three years' hard and 

 continuous work on the sugar plantations. 

 When they reached the plantations and learned 

 that they were to be retained in practical slave- 

 ry for three years, many of them sickened and 

 died from grief and despair. Their average 

 rate of mortality during the first year of service 

 was three per cent a month. 



As the result of the revelations brought out 

 in the inquiry, the Queensland Government de- 

 cided to return to their native islands all the 

 Polynesian laborers in the colony held by in- 

 dentures, at the public expense, and to enforce 

 against the owners of labor-ships the bonds of 

 500 each, given as a guarantee that the regu- 

 lations would be observed. The sugar planters 

 raised a great outcry at the prospect of being 

 suddenly deprived of their laborers just at the 

 crushing season. They denied the legality of 

 the bold course taken by the Government, and 

 threatened to bring suits for damages. Mr. 

 Griffith, the premier, was not moved from his 

 purpose. All the laborers who wished to re- 

 turn to their homes were released and returned 

 to their islands by the Government. A few 

 elected to remain in the colony. 



The Queensland Government decided to 

 compensate the planters for their loss. Of 

 the 625 islanders brought to Queensland by 

 the eight vessels whose doings had been in- 

 vestigated by the Commission, 97 had died 

 within an average time of seven and a half 

 months. The Polynesian inspectors in the 

 districts where the "boys" were employed 

 visited the 528 remaining ones and offered 

 them the opportunity to return to their homes. 

 It was found on inquiry that not a single 

 one of the natives understood the nature of 

 the contract into which he was supposed to 

 have entered voluntarily. Most of them had 

 been engaged by the labor agents for three 

 moons. Missionaries reported that their rela- 

 tives and tribesmen were incensed at their 

 non-return at the end of that period. About 

 TO, all on one plantation, elected to remain. 

 More than 400 were collected at Mackay and 

 Townsville and shipped on a steamer which 

 cruised along the coast of New Guinea and 

 the adjacent islands, calling at 49 places to 

 return the " boys " to their homes. All those 

 whose cases were investigated, and who were 

 sent back, were natives of the lands comprised 

 in the new crown domain. H. M. Chester, 

 the police magistrate of Thursday Island, whom 

 Sir Thomas Mcll wraith intrusted with the 

 duty of annexing New Guinea to Queensland, 

 commanded the expedition, and Hugh H. 

 Romilly, Deputy Commissioner for the West- 



