[January, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL I N S T I T U T E j O U R N A L . 
Vol. VHP No.- 85. 
1 2 
the absolute prohibition of the supply of liquor to natives, under the 
severest penalties. Inspectors of mines will be provided, whose duties will 
be to guard the interests of the natives, and to investigate matters relating 
to contracts and wages, from which regulation no one will be allowed ex- 
emption. The duration of contracts will not exceed one year, except with 
the approval of the Native Commissioner himself. 
The Emigrants’ Information Office has collated a number of practical 
notes and much good advice with regard to our West African Colonies, and, 
after revision by the Governments concerned, has issued this information in 
pamphlet form. The territories dealt with are Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, 
Lagos, Gambia and Southern Nigeria, and the dominant note throughout is 
that the whole region is quite unsuited for colonisation by European settlers, 
as the climate renders continuous residence on the coast almost impossible. 
There is employment for a certain number of lawyers and doctors, but the 
openings for white labour generally are few. The mines require miners, and 
the mercantile firms need assistants, but all these men are sent out by 
appointment from England. Professional men should first make careful 
enquiries as to prospects from experienced residents before going out. 
West Africa is only suitable for persons of sound constitution and temperate 
habits, and every one should be medically examined before deciding to go 
there. It is not desirable that anyone under 22 years of age should go out to 
the West Coast. 
India. — A retrospective glance at the industries of India last year 
reveals a somewhat better condition of affairs than that which prevailed in 
1900. There has been a recurrence of famine, but distress from this cause 
has not been so widespread, the Bombay Presidency being the chief sufferer. 
As against the depression in agricultural pursuits, it is satisfactory to note 
that India’s mineral wealth is becoming more and more developed, and that 
a considerable progress in her manufacturing industries has taken place. 
Much has been done by the Government in the interests of labour. In the 
Assam Labour Bill, a praiseworthy attempt has been made to improve the 
condition of the coolies without placing too great a burden on the tea 
industry. The labour clauses of the Indian Mines Act have been revised in 
a satisfactory manner. By the investigations of the Famine Commission and 
of the Plague Commission, the authorities should be better able to safeguard 
and relieve the natives in the time of future visitations, and it is to be confi- 
dently hoped that the new year will be one of further improvement and 
progress. 
Foreign Countries. — It has been stated in more than one of the 
American trade journals that the great steel trust has determined on a new 
policy with regard to the labour they employ. They contemplate substituting 
American men and boys for the foreigners, and particularly the Welsh tin- 
workers, who now take such a large share in operating the big mills of the 
country. It is doubtful if immediate action will be taken in this direction, 
but the matter is under serious consideration. It has been found, particularly 
in time of strikes, that the illiterate foreigner is a hard proposition to handle, 
and it is believed that the American labourer and the skilled mechanic can 
be dealt with more easily. Although it may mean a great increase in the 
rate of wages now paid, the companies can afford to pay more if they are 
insured against constantly recurring troubles with the men. As the result of 
a convention, recently held in New York, a committee has been appointed, 
consisting of twelve representatives of organised labour, twelve representatives 
of labour-employing concerns, and twelve independent gentlemen, in order to 
consider the question of harmonising capital and labour and averting strikes. 
This committee has much in common with the Courts of Arbitration and 
Conciliation in the North of England, and declares in its programme that it 
will undertake such work as may seem necessary to promote industrial peace, 
to be helpful in establishing rightful relations between employers and workers, 
to endeavour to obviate and prevent strikes and lock-outs, and to aid in 
renewing relations wherever a rupture has occurred. The committee assumes 
no power of arbitration unless conferred by the parties to the dispute. 
The British Consul at Stuttgart, referring to the present depression in 
German trade and industries, says that the chief failures in Germany during 
the last 18 months have been those of banks, and not of factories and 
works founded on a sound basis. In spite of the general depression there 
are several favourable symptoms. Thus, the revenues of the State railways 
show an increase ; the position of Germany in the markets of the world does 
not seem to have suffered materially ; but the number of the unemployed is 
increasing, and relief works have had to be started in some places. The 
difficulty of finding employment has induced many workmen, whose term of 
military service has not yet come, to proffer themselves voluntarily to the 
military authorities without waiting for the official call. They think that by 
entering now they can tide over the bad times, and may find a more 
flourishing state of affairs when their term of service is over. Trusts appear 
to be increasing in Germany, and now include many leading industries, 
although in textiles they have not been successful. Raw and accessory 
materials and unfinished products, such as coals, pig iron, copper, rails, 
chemicals, sugar, and petroleum, seem to have lent themselves best to the 
formation of trusts. Public opinion in Germany is divided as to their utility. 
They are supported, even by eminent economists, as beneficent, and are 
denounced as subversive of all normal commercial development. In some 
few cases they are approved by the working classes concerned, but, as a rule, 
they are feared and disliked by the workmen, on account of their great power 
and extensive ramifications. 
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT 
OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 
4 
THE SUGAR INDUSTRY OF QUEENSLAND AND NEW SOUTH 
WALES. 
The Director of Sugar Experiment Stations in Queensland, Dr. W. Maxwell, has 
made an important report on the sugar industry in Queensland and New South Wales, 
which is published as a supplement to the Queenslander of August 31, 1901. Some 
account of cane cultivation in Queensland was given in tire article on “Sugar-Cane 
Cultivation in Behar ” in this Journal (June, 1901, p. 155); in the present report the 
industry is considered in its bearings on the question of Asiatic and Polynesian immigra- 
tion, which is now attracting so much attention in Australia, and the following is a resume 
of its contents. 
The climatic data of different districts is given in the following table, from which an 
understanding of the general variations may be arrived at, but which does not cover the 
whole climatic situation of each district : — 
States. 
Districts. 
Mean 
Minimum 
Temperature 
in 4 Years. 
Mean 
Maximum 
Temperature 
in 4 Years. 
Mean of 
Temperature 
in 4 Years. 
Highest 
Temperature 
in 4 years. 
^ • 
3 f 
C h. 
r/ * rt rt 
P s s 
OO. 
J E * 
V G 
H‘~ 
Total Units 
of Heat 
per Year. 
Queensland . . j 
New South ( 
Wales . . f 
Cairns . . . 
Mackay , 
Bundaberg . 
Tweed . . 1 
Richmond . > 
Clarence , , J 
67-6 
63 ’9 
61-3 
55 '4 
83 ‘3 
79-8 
83 '4 
7S*2 
75*4 
71- 9 
72- 3 
66 ' 2 
1 00 '4 
96-6 
99-6 
45 * 1 
frost 
frost 
frost 
27 , 51 b 
26,2So 
26,389 
24/163 
Queensland. 
The “plantation” system in which the growing of the cane and the manufacturing of 
the sugar are one concern, and which can only be carried on by capitalists owning large 
estates, has been superseded by the system of central factories which buy the canes from 
the farmers and manufacture the sugar. The inauguration of the Government central mill 
system has made the growth of canes on small farms possible, and has brought about a great 
change, of which the most highly important economic and social result is that a targe 
number of strong, responsible and progressive white settlers are being established over the 
sugar-growing areas. At this time there are 2,610 cane-growers in the State of Queensland, 
with an average area of 42*6 acres per grower under sugar-cane. These small farmers, with 
their families, are engaged in cultivating their own lands for their own direct gain, with a 
personal interest in the occupancy of the lands, and have modified the exclusive employment 
Of subject-labour. The number of Pacific Islanders employed has decreased from 10,755 
in 1885 to S,826 in 1899, yet the sugar made has risen from 55,796 tons in 1885 to 123,289 
tons in 1899. 
It is of paramount importance to realise that the present production of the lands 
centreing round the sugar mills Cannot be maintained unless the present sum of labour- 
power, in some form, is kept up. To reduce the present equivalent of labour-power would 
be to reduce the current weight of cane produced, and if that falls below a given minimum 
the mills must stop, as they cannot then meet the bare expenses of running. At the present 
time the. labour furnished by the cane-grtnvers themselves is utterly inadequate to produce 
the bulk of cane requisite to keep the' mills in operation, and hired labour is necessary. 
The hired labour includes Europeans (chiefly Anglo-Saxons), and Asiatics, Hindoos and 
Pacific Islanders. 
By the Pacific Island Labourers Act the white labourer is protected, and the positions 
“of engineers, engine-drivers, engine- fitters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, farriers, sugar- 
boilers, carpenters, sawyers, splitters, fencers, bulloclc -drivers, mechanics, grooms or coach- 
men, waggoners, or household servants,” are reserved for his selection ; whilst the field work 
is left for the Pacific Islander, but the white labourer can undertake this, too, if he wishes. 
The compensation, that is wages and rations together, received by the white labourer 
per week for field work varies from £1. 7s. to £\. 17s. The mill hands receive from 
£1. 7s. 9d. for labourers to ^4. 16s. Sd. per week for sugar boilers. The importation and 
employment of Pacific Islanders are regulated by very stringent and detailed enactments, 
prescribing among other things their food rations, clothing and medical attendance. The 
cost of a Pacific Islander in the Bundaberg district is £yj. 2s, 3|d. per year, and in the 
Mackay district it is £32. 03. rod. An Islander who re-engages after the end of his first 
term of three years costs somewhat more, namely, ^38. 6s. 4d. per year. 
The comparative cost of white and Pacific Island labour in the cane fields is as 
follows : — 
Class of Labour. Cost per Year. 
• £ s. cl. 
White labour . . So 7 10 
Pacific Island labour . 36 14 10 
For comparison it may be stated that in Louisiana (U.S.A.) day wages paid to white 
men in the field averaged about one dollar {4s. 2d.), while the daily wage of the negro was 
seventy-five cents {3s. i|d. ) In the Hawaiian Islands the unskilled white labourers received 
about one dollar (4s. 2d.) per day, and the Asiatics seventy cents (2s. nd.). 
Not only must the cost of the different kinds of labour he compared, but also differences 
in (a) skill or competence to perform work ; ( 6 ) personal endurance of work ; (e) stability in 
attendance at work ; (ff) rate of wage for performance of work. The difference of skill is of 
less importance, as the Pacific Islander is excluded by law from competing in the skilled 
operations. The endurance of work differs in different districts ; the following table gives 
statistics for limited localities in two districts : — 
White Labour, Pacific Islanders. 
Working *» ^ u „ 
District. 
Days 
in Year. 
Days of 
Work. 
Days 
Lost, 
Days of 
Work. 
Days 
Lost. 
Bundaberg 
313 
295 
18 
295 
IS 
Mackay . 
313 
292^ 
20-1- 
299 
14 
But a sounder idea can be obtained from notes and statements which cannot be expressed in 
tabular form. In the Bundaberg district it was found that permanent white hands, say 
75 P er cent, of the total employed, work approximately fifty weeks yearly. Hands for 
crushing season do that season only, which ranges from twelve weeks to thirty weeks, or an 
average of twenty-two weeks. On account of the large amount of sickness during the first 
year of his term, the Islander is off more days by sickness than the permanent white man. 
The records of the Mulgrave Central Mill Company show that in 1S99 the cutting season 
commenced with 58 Islanders, 60 Chinese, and 95 Hindoos in the field. During the first 
months of the cutting season there was little sickness, but as the work extended into the hot 
weather the original cutting force of 213 men was reduced to 183, whose labour efficiency 
was much reduced. In place of the sick and disabled men, an extra force of. 12 Islanders 
Cost perAVeek. 
- £ s. cl. 
I IO II 
o 14 ii 
Cost per 
Working Day. 
£ •-37 d. 
052 
O 2 4} 
