224 THE QUEENSLAND LABOR TRADE. 
others ‘“‘to go and work on the ship,”’ or “‘to sail about.”” And doubt- 
less, even in Melanesia itself, the actual signing of the recruits was 
in many cases a mere farce. Men filed by the government agent and 
merely touched the tip of the pen he held in his hand, thus in the par- 
lance of the trade “marking paper,” and often with no explanation 
whatever as to the matters involved. However, in time these abuses 
came to an end, owing to an extended knowledge among the natives 
of what were the processes involved. 
In later years the regulation that interpreters must be carried on the 
ships involved a good deal of heart-burning among the islanders, and 
also necessarily entailed the production of a set of first-rate humbugs 
as interpreters, men who were cordially detested by the shore people 
and who by virtue of their position on the ship gave themselves tre- 
mendous airs when ashore, and who were in consequence a menace 
to their various neighborhoods. In the later days of the trade, apart 
from the special provisions of the act, there was really no need for 
the employment of these interpreters, as there were people in every 
part who understood English. 
The practice grew up of recruits being obtained by means of a present 
given to their friends. This was thoroughly in accord with native 
ideas and was known in the native tongue everywhere as buying. 
Even Bishop Patteson had to do the same thing when he wanted to 
obtain boys as scholars, and the Mission has always followed his 
practice when dealing with people in Heathen districts. 
Recruiting ships were said by the natives to buy their men and 1 in 
the Solomons were always known as the “ships that buy men,” but 
in the New Hebrides and Banks Group, where deeds of violence had 
been more common, they were known as “thief ships.” ‘The giving 
of a present when recruiting was connived at by the authorities, 
though in itself it would probably have been held to be contrary to 
the spirit of the regulations. So long as this present consisted of harm- 
less things like tobacco and pipes and fish-hooks and print and axes 
and knives, no exception could possibly have been taken to the prac- 
tice. In later years gold was frequently given, even as much as £2 
or £3 being paid for a recruit. So firmly established was the practice 
that if the pay were not given for a recruit, or if it were reserved to 
be handed over to him in Queensland, or if a man ran away and got 
on board by stealth, and no pay were sent on shore for him, he was said 
by the people to have been stolen, and angry feelings were aroused and 
reprisals were sure to be made later on. (The English words sell and 
pay and even buy are frequently rendered by a single word in the 
Melanesian tongues.) Before the annexation of the Solomon Islands 
men were frequently bought with rifles. ‘This of course was contrary 
to the regulations, but undoubtedly cases of gun-running were con- 
stantly occurring in the Solomons and in the New Hebrides. 
