Page:Northmost Australia volume 2.djvu/20

Rh fitness for hard, rough and dirty work on schooners and curing stations.

The "fisheries" had room for a considerable number of labourers of the unskilled order. Queensland aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders of Papuan descent, South Sea Islanders, any or all of them could perform the duties of the rank and file employed in this industry. In the early days the absence of acts or regulations prescribing the period of service, the hours of work or the remuneration of the persons so employed left the employers the party of the first part free to make and enforce their own terms. Even if the captains of the industry had been willing to negotiate for service on fair conditions, their ignorance of the languages of the different tribes would, in most cases, have made it impossible for them to do so. Add to this the "contributory" condition that the party of the second part was often by nature and habit unversed in the art of chaffering and ignorant of values in time, money and merchandise, and it is not surprising that in many instances the party of the first part concluded that, "once on board the lugger," the party of the second part would prove amenable to reason and make such contracts as were suggested to him. It can easily be imagined that, however much the ultimate employer might desire to secure only willing labour, the interests of skippers, paid at so much per head, were all in favour of large numbers recruited by whatever inducements would fill up their vessels. Without rigorous naval supervision, abuses would appear to have been inevitable under such a system of recruiting. It is much to their credit that the majority of the skippers recruiting for Queensland employers did their best under very difficult conditions; but there were exceptional cases of cruelty and deception. Tales of wrongs and violence began to reach the world outside. Now and then a warship made a surprise visit to the scene of operations and executed justice at the discretion of the Commander and the Naval Court composed of his officers convened by him. The Parliament of Queensland made act after act for the regulation of the traffic and the protection of the aborigine and Polynesian, and an ex-Premier, the Hon. John Douglas, having been appointed Government Resident at Thursday Island, was entrusted with the institution and conduct of a system of marine patrolling. It may be conceded that the information on which the official supervisors of the fisheries had to act on their own responsibility, was often difficult to bring into line with the principles regulating admissible legal evidence; but, on the other hand, there can be no doubt that Mr. Douglas and his successors did their best to administer even-handed justice of a rough and ready sort. The principles of this administration were obviously modelled on those followed from time immemorial by the Royal Navy in dealing with savages when interference became unavoidable.