Page:A few facts in connection with the Employment of Polynesian Labour in Queensland.djvu/8

6 That the Islanders are thrifty in their habits is evidenced by the fact that according to the Pacific Islanders Annual Report on January 1st, 1893, £18,641 19s. 5d. was deposited by them in the Government Savings Bank of Queensland; the number of Islanders then in the Colony being 7,979.

Now for the particular testimony of ministers of religion.

The Rev. Dr. J. R. Selwyn, late Bishop of Melanesia, says:—"I cannot help feeling that the indiscriminate condemnation of the traffic which has been expressed is likely to do more harm than good. It was true of the traffic in its beginning. It is not true of the traffic as now conducted &hellip; You will readily understand that the Labour trade is not looked on with disfavour by the Islanders. &hellip; Of the character of the returned labourers. &hellip; Ministers of religion, Managers of Stations, and, above all in point of influence, ladies have worked enthusiastically with and for them. One or two of our most flourishing Stations (missionary stations on the islands of the Western Pacific) have been started by men who have been taught in Queensland. Shortly before I left I received a petition from 25 natives of Tanna who had been baptized asking me to care for them. I forwarded this letter to the Presbyterian Synod in whose sphere Tanna lies, and am glad to hear that they are being cared for &hellip; Do what we will we cannot keep these islands wrapped up in cotton-wool. There is evil in the world, and in some form or another they will come in contact with it. Our duty is to try and strengthen them morally and physically, that they may be able to resist it. No one can say that, per se, it is a bad thing for a young fellow to leave his own narrow island home, learn to work steadily, and obtain what he wants by that work."

Dr. Saumarez Smith, Primate of Australia, visited last year the sugar districts of Northern Queensland, spoke favourably of the condition and behaviour of the Islanders on the plantations, and told a press interviewer in Brisbane "That he should not be disposed to object to Kanaka labour being utilised in the cultivation of the sugar fields provided that adequate control was exercised over the recruiting of the labourers, and that the terms upon which they were engaged were rigorously supervised." Sir Henry Wylie Norman and Lord Charles Scott certify that these conditions are amply fulfilled.

The Rev. Dr. Webber, Bishop of Brisbane, who has repeatedly visited the sugar plantations of Southern and Central Queensland, in an address to the Synod of his diocese in May, 1892, spoke of the care with which the Kanakas were treated, and having witnessed the baptism by his own chaplains of many Kanakas, expressed his conviction that the Islanders were largely benefited by the civilizing and Christianising influences to which they were subject in Queensland.