ABORIGINAL AND POLYNESIAN LABOUR 373 



question of fire-arms. The sale of fire -arms to the islanders in Queens- 

 land had been forbidden in 1879, as was also the trade in fire-arms 

 at the islands. The sole effect of the latter regulation was to hand 

 this ** trade " to French and Germans. Then, again, a number of 

 " boys " who had completed their contracts in Queensland had 

 bought and paid for cheap guns, and these were confiscated without 

 compensation when the boys embarked on the return vessels. 



The repatriation of the islanders by the end of 1890, the time 

 prescribed by the Act of 1885, having been found to be incomplete, 

 the Act was repealed in 1892, and the limit of deportation extended. 

 A few years later the obnoxious islanders were finally cleared out 

 of the country, some of them very unwillingly. 



My conclusions are : 



(1) That the pearl and beche de mer " fishers " in many instances 

 wronged and oppressed the aborigines whom they induced to board 

 their vessels, and that murders and reprisals resulted ; that to 

 a lesser extent they treated Torres Strait and Pacific Islanders in 

 the same way ; that these evils were in course of time success- 

 fully overcome by legislation and supervision, and that the industry 

 is now as respectable a business as any other. 



(2) That the sugar planters never did the aborigines the 

 slightest harm. 



(3) That their agents engaged in recruiting did occasionally 

 employ methods for which they had neither authority from their 

 employers nor any reason except their own cupidity, but that such 

 irregularities were exceptional. 



(4) That such irregular, unjust or outrageous conduct could 

 be put an end to, and, in fact, was practically put an end to, by 

 legislation and supervision. 



(5) That the South Sea Islanders were, and are, the sbet 

 labourers in the cane-fields. 



(6) That the islanders brought to Queenslandwerewell treated on 

 the plantations, liked their work, and in many instances voluntarily 

 renewed their term of service on the completion of their contracts. 



(7) That the whole generation of pioneer planters was financially 

 ruined by the stoppage of the labour on the faith of the continua- 

 tion of which they had spent their capital. 



(8) That South Sea Island labour could, after all, only have 

 served to keep the industry going during its early years, because 

 of the insufficiency of the supply. At the present day cane- 

 growers establish plantations on the islands of the Pacific, and 

 already find that the population cannot furnish the number of 

 labourers demanded by a progressive industry, however suited for 

 it the conditions of soil and climate may be. 



(9) That Queensland is irrevocably committed to white labour, 

 which, in spite of assertions to the contrary, is shy of field work 

 in the tropics. 



