1 Ave., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. lil 
everyone in Queensland, knows that it failed. It proved the very thing that it was 
intended to disprove; it resulted in ruin to some, and loss to all; and those who 
wrought it had themselves to rescind their own measure. Surely, after this, cane- 
growers were reasonably entitled to expect that they would be allowed the quiet enjoy- 
ment and rational use of the labour their opponents had proved to be necessary! 
Many people are under the impression that cane rowing was started with white labour, 
and that the early planters (now no more) substituted kanaka labour on the sole - 
grounds that it was cheaper, This is not only unjust to the planters, but utterl 
wrong in fact. When Queensland broke the bonds which bound her to New Sout 
Wales—bonds which J sincerely hope (apart from all personal self-interest) will 
never be per are ett was early seen that her future prosperity depended in a great 
measure upon her ability, to utilise her vast area of tropical lands for the purpose of 
cane and coffee cultivation, The first Parliament of Queensland placed upon our 
statutes an Act under which free grants of land were offered to induce people to 
embark in these industries. It also placed at the same time other Acts thereon, under 
which the necessary field labour required by these industries could be obtained not 
only from the South Sea Islands but from the East Indies also. And the very fact 
that during the twenty-five years the East Indies Coolie Act was on our statutes not 
a single employer took advantage of it, proves most conclusively that the employers of 
alien labour, from its inception, were actuated by a desire only to introduce the class 
of labour bound to create work for white labourers, and least likely to come into com- 
etition with them, and refrained from introducing a class which most certainly would 
ave done so, notwithstanding the fact that their introduction would have cost much 
less, and that they would otherwise have been much cheaper to the planters. ; 
If the intelligent, enterprising, and undesirable ins has of late years been 
introduced into our canefields, it was foreed upon employers owing to the uncertainty 
of and the harassing restrictions placed upon employers of kanaka labour. 
So imperative is reliable labour to the successful carrying on of the sugar 
industry, that even in the West Indies, with their large creole population, Coolie 
immigration has to be carried on on a large scale. British Guiana, making about 
110,000 tons of sugar, has a Coolie population of 100,000. Queensland, making 
120,000 tons, has a kanaka PAVED of about 7,000. It may interest some to learn 
that during ten years the births of kanakas in Queensland ‘were 482; the number 
returned to the islands was 415, leaving only 67 unaccounted for, of which number 
death must have claimed some. Under favourable conditions, Queensland must soon 
seek a market for her sugars beyond the Australian colonies, and enter into compe- 
tition with other sugar-producing countries in the world’s markets. Let us compare 
the labour conditions of Queensland with those of British Guiana. I. select that 
articular colony because I have resided there, and can speak from experience. In 
ueensland, the kanaka is introduced for three‘years, the whole of the expenses of intro- 
duction being borne by the introducer. The cost of introduction and return passage is ~ 
£30, which, divided over three years, equals £10 perannum. Of this sum £24 has to be 
aid in advance, and a bond with sureties given for the return assage money. In 
British Guiana the Government introduces the Coolies for the fears (who, unlike 
the farmers of Queensland, are all wealthy men). The cost of introduction is £10, 
only a portion of which is paid by the planter, the payment being extended over three 
years. The term of indenture Is five years, the cost of return passage, which can 
only be claimed after ten years’ service, is, say, another £10, or £20 in all, which, 
divided over the ten years, is £2 per annum—just one-fifth of what the Queensland 
farmer has to pay. In all other sugar-growing countries, all work is done by contract, 
the labourers providing their own food. In Queensland the kanakas get both rations 
and wages whether they work or play. I have known instances of kanakas being 
sick for eighteen months, yet every six months, when the inspector visited the estate 
to witness payment of wages, this islander had to be paid the same as those who had 
never lost a day, It is extremely hard and most unjust that we should not only have 
to provide a sick islander with food, medical attendance, and medicine free of charge, 
but pay unearned wages also. The S.S. Islander in Queensland is protected in a 
manner which the most democratic Government on the face of the earth would never 
dream of extending to the white man. Many delegates to the Gatton Conference 
could scarcely credit the statements made by my co-delegate and myself with 
reference to this labour and the iniquitous burdens placed upon their employers. 
Some of you were there and heard the statements. i am now here before you, and 
am prepared to more than justify every statement I then made. I trust, gentlemen, 
that during your stay here you will embrace the opportunity of making yourself 
Repeenally acquainted with this most important phase of our troubles. My suggestion 
is that the term of indenture be extended to five years. This, while doing wrong to 
