Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/18

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NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA

VOL. II

CHAPTER LI

ABORIGINAL AND POLYNESIAN LABOUR

PEARLING AND BECHE DE MER INDUSTRIES. EARLY UNRESTRICTED TRAFFIC IN LABOUR. KIDNAPPING AND OTHER ABUSES. STRICT SUPERVISION A NECESSITY. LEGISLATION SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED. DIFFERENT CLASSES OF WORKMEN REQUIRED IN SUGAR INDUSTRY. RECRUITING OF LABOUR. LENGTH OF SERVICE AND PAYMENT AND TREATMENT OF LABOURERS REGULATED ALMOST FROM THE FIRST. GROWING

OBJECTION TO IMPORTED BLACK LABOUR. THE "WHITE AUSTRALIA" IDEAL. ABOLITION OF COLOURED LABOUR AND REPATRIATION OF ISLANDERS. IN ANY CASE, THE ISLANDS CANNOT SUPPLY A SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF LABOURERS. NOT

EVEN LABOURERS ENOUGH FOR PLANTATIONS ESTABLISHED IN THE ISLANDS. LITERATURE PRO AND CON.

THE political and economic questions involved in the employment of aborigines and South Sea Islanders are, strictly speaking, beyond the scope of this work; but certain reflections inevitably arise. What I have to say on the matter is based partly on observations made and impressions formed in the course of official journeys which took me from time to time among the sugar plantations of Northern Queensland, and still more on an extensive perusal of the literature of the subject, and especially of the books and pamphlets enumerated in the footnote.<ref> name=p18">

ACTS AND REGULATIONS

1862. Coolie Act (never operated).
1868. Polynesian Act. (Provides for Government Agent on recruiting ships.)
1872. (Imperial) Pacific Islanders' Protection Act (vulg. " Kidnapping Act "). (Labour vessels must be licensed. Onus of proof of labourers' consent. Kidnapping penal.)
1875. (Imperial) Pacific Islanders' Protection Act.
1879. Queensland Regulations. (No fire- arms nor liquor to be sold by traders. No presents to "friends" of labourers.)
1880. Pacific Island Labourers Act. (Repeals 1868 Act and re-enacts its provisions, with additions, e.g., hospitals, restriction of labour to tropical agriculture, and proof that labourers understood contract.)
1883. Pacific Island Labourers. (Inspectors in Queensland.)
1884. Native Labourers' Protection Act. (Service restricted to three years.)
1885. Act. Abolition of Island Labour. (No more labour to be imported or employed after 1890.)
1892. Pacific Island Labourers Act. (Repeals 1885 Act.)

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS

Captain George Palmer, R.N.,F.R.G.S., Kidnapping in the South Seas, being a Narrative of a Three Months' Cruise of H.M. Ship "Rosario." Edinburgh, 1871. (Alleges wholesale

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