Page:A few facts in connection with the Employment of Polynesian Labour in Queensland.djvu/10

8 was published afterwards in pamphlet form. From this a few sentences may be collated. He says:—"I associated chiefly with the 'boys,' saw them at their work, visited them in their houses, as well as attended their night class meetings, and I interviewed and cross-examined them as often as I could get an opportunity. Out of about 9,000 registered Polynesians in Queensland, I may say I saw the existing conditions of nearly 6,000—about two-thirds of the whole. I have the most reliable testimony that the same conditions prevail in the Maryborough district, leaving only about one-fifth of the Kanaka population scattered over Queensland which I have not personally visited. I went to the plantations having no special opinion on the matter, save a general impression that things must be very bad since so much had been written against them (by Dr. Paton inter alia) &hellip; The result of the whole was, that I was most happily undeceived. I found the islanders on the plantations everywhere treated in a most humane and Christian way. As to slavery there was not a vestige of it, rather the opposite. If the planters erred at all, they erred in making too much of their black employees. At all events I was forced by sheer conviction to the conclusion that it would be a good thing for all the white labourers in the colony if they were as well off and as well cared for as those poor blacks! &hellip; I found amongst them a general air of contentment, and often of placid happiness &hellip; The boys and 'Marys' turn out in large numbers to the Sabbath services at the head-quarters of the mission at Walkerston, some occasionally coming from a distance of fifteen miles. When they cannot, from distance or other causes attend, there is a morning service on each plantation, either conducted by a Missionary or held by the 'boys,' presided over by a native teacher, amongst themselves. There has been year by year an ever deepening seriousness amongst them. They prove themselves most susceptible to Christian influences, and are increasingly anxious to listen to the gospel. Many seem to have been savingly converted, and during the four years or so of the Mission 252 have been baptised and several more are awaiting baptism &hellip; A more solemn sight I never witnessed than when I baptised nineteen catechumen in my visit in September last year (1892), while their prayers and simple addresses I heard at some of their meetings often brought tears into my eyes &hellip; To speak of slavery of the worst description existing on these sugar plantations of Queensland is utterly untrue; while as to the charge of atrocious kidnapping in importing the boys, the asserters of it are beginning to keep quiet, because the charge only provokes in most minds 'inextinguishable laughter,' which Homer speaks of in old times as coming from the sight of, or hearing, something supremely ridiculous &hellip; And now the result of the whole is my deep seated conviction that a very great deal of good is being done to these Polynesians by their importation into Queensland, that they are improved physically, morally, and spiritually, and that apart from the monetary benefit accruing to the colony through their employment in the sugar industry,