ABORIGINAL AND POLYNESIAN LABOUR 369 



fitness for hard, rough and dirty work on schooners and curing 

 stations. 



The " fisheries " had room for a considerable number of 

 labourers of the unskilled order. Queensland aborigines, Torres 

 Strait Islanders of Papuan descent, South Sea Islanders, any or all 

 of them could perform the duties of the rank and file employed in 

 this industry. In the early days the absence of acts or regulations 

 prescribing the period of service, the hours of work or the remunera- 

 tion of the persons so employed left the employers the party of 

 the first part free to make and enforce their own terms. Even 

 if the captains of the industry had been willing to negotiate for 

 service on fair conditions, their ignorance of the languages of the 

 different tribes would, in most cases, have made it impossible for 

 them to do so. Add to this the " contributory " condition that 

 the party of the second part was often by nature and habit unversed 

 in the art of chaffering and ignorant of values in time, money 

 and merchandise, and it is not surprising that in many instances 

 the party of the first part concluded that, " once on board the 

 lugger," the party of the second part would prove amenable to 

 reason and make such contracts as were suggested to him. It can 

 easily be imagined that, however much the ultimate employer 

 might desire to secure only willing labour, the interests of skippers, 

 paid at so much per head, were all in favour of large numbers 

 recruited by whatever inducements would fill up their vessels. 

 Without rigorous naval supervision, abuses would appear to have 

 been inevitable under such a system of recruiting. It is much to 

 their credit that the majority of the skippers recruiting for Queens- 

 land employers did their best under very difficult conditions ; 

 but there were exceptional cases of cruelty and deception. Tales 

 of wrongs and violence began to reach the world outside. Now and 

 then a warship made a surprise visit to the scene of operations and 

 executed justice at the discretion of the Commander and the Naval 

 Court composed of his officers convened by him. The Parliament 

 of Queensland made act after act for the regulation of the traffic 

 and the protection of the aborigine and Polynesian, and an ex- 

 Premier, the Hon. John Douglas, having been appointed Govern- 

 ment Resident at Thursday Island, was entrusted with the institu- 

 tion and conduct of a system of marine patrolling. It may be 

 conceded that the information on which the official supervisors of 

 the fisheries had to act on their own responsibility, was often difficult 

 to bring into line with the principles regulating admissible legal 

 evidence ; but, on the other hand, there can be no doubt that Mr. 

 Douglas and his successors did their best to administer even- 

 handed justice of a rough and ready sort. The principles of this 

 administration were obviously modelled on those followed from 

 time immemorial by the Royal Navy in dealing with savages when 

 interference became unavoidable. 



ii- 



