NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



VOL. II 



CHAPTER LI 

 ABORIGINAL AND POLYNESIAN LABOUR 



PEARLING AND BECHE DE MER INDUSTRIES. EARLY UNRESTRICTED TRAFFIC IN LABOUR. 

 KIDNAPPING AND OTHER ABUSES. STRICT SUPERVISION A NECESSITY. LEGISLATION 

 SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED. DIFFERENT CLASSES OF WORKMEN REQUIRED IN SUGAR 

 INDUSTRY. RECRUITING OF LABOUR. LENGTH OF SERVICE AND PAYMENT AND 

 TREATMENT OF LABOURERS REGULATED ALMOST FROM THE FIRST. GROWING 

 OBJECTION TO IMPORTED BLACK LABOUR. THE " WHITE AUSTRALIA " IDEAL. 

 ABOLITION OF COLOURED LABOUR AND REPATRIATION OF ISLANDERS. IN ANY 

 CASE, THE ISLANDS CANNOT SUPPLY A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF LABOURERS. NOT 

 EVEN LABOURERS ENOUGH FOR PLANTATIONS ESTABLISHED IN THE ISLANDS. 

 LITERATURE PRO AND CON. 



THE political and economic questions involved in the employ- 

 ment of aborigines and South Sea Islanders are, strictly 

 speaking, beyond the scope of this work; but certain reflec- 

 tions inevitably arise. What I have to say on the matter 

 is based partly on observations made and impressions formed in 

 the course of official journeys which took me from time to time 

 among the sugar plantations of Northern Queensland, and still 

 more on an extensive perusal of the literature of the subject, and 

 especially of the books and pamphlets enumerated in the footnote. 1 



ACTS AND REGULATIONS 



1862. Coolie Act (never operated). 



1868. Polynesian Act. (Provides for Government Agent on recruiting ships.) 



1872. (Imperial) Pacific Islanders' Protection Act (vulg. " Kidnapping Act "). 

 (Labour vessels must be licensed. Onus of proof of labourers' consent. Kidnapping 

 penal.) 



1875. (Imperial) Pacific Islanders' Protection Act. 



1879. Queensland Regulations. (No fire- arms nor liquor to be sold by traders. No 

 presents to " friends " of labourers.) 



1880. Pacific Island Labourers Act. (Repeals 1868 Act and re-enacts its provisions, 

 with additions, e.g., hospitals, restriction of labour to tropical agriculture, and proof 

 that labourers understood contract.) 



1883. Pacific Island Labourers. (Inspectors in Queensland.) 



1884. Native Labourers' Protection Act. (Service restricted to three years.) 



1885. Act. Abolition of Island Labour. (No more labour to be imported or 

 employed after 1890.) 



1892. Pacific Island Labourers Act. (Repeals 1885 Act.) 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 



Captain George Pa.\meT,R.lS.,F.R.G.S., Kidnapping in the South Seas, being a Narrative 

 of a Three Months' Cruise qfHM. Ship " Rosario." Edinburgh, 1871. (Alleges wholesale 



367 



