Page:What I Know Of The Labour Traffic.djvu/8

6 from New Ireland on his advent to Queensland, and very few of the other Islanders ever understood the nature of the 'contract' into which they were beguiled. I know that the Statute of 1880 expressly provides for this; but it is a farce that is played, not the Act which is carried out. No Islander is ever made aware of the value of his labour: he has no capacity for measuring time, whether you picture it in years, yams, or moons, and his motives for coming to Queensland, you will find, are intimately connected with a latent conviction, that he will have increased facilities for exercising his thieving propensities; and may, if he has any luck, return with his pockets full of gunpowder, and a musket on each shoulder; but be you quite sure of this, that the Kanaka does not come here to see you ride on horses; to hear your music in church; and much less to dig and dung regularly in your sugar garden for the sum of £6 a year and his keep."

All this, and much more did I pour into the patient ears of my Christian Kanaka dealers; and all that came of it, when I came to an end? was a joyous exclamation, accompanied with the jovial request, "Let's liquor."

Such lightness of heart speaks volumes; and it is not, perhaps, untrue to say that many, even of our Christian merchants, are more moved by the force of habit than the strength of argument.

Now having spent the best part of my life in the service of the people, and being filled with the spirit that cannot rest, the spirit that is ever on the watch to sing out "All's well," or "Take care," I lately went with a merry heart on a cruise in a "labour vessel" to the South Sea Islands, bent on seeing all that belongs to this traffic and in the interests of humanity and for the defence of the character of a British Colony, to report minutely on all through which I might pass. As the Government attorney appointed to that vessel I looked forward to an instructive and novel voyage.

About the middle of last January we entered the Coral Sea on our way to New Ireland. What winds we had were contrary. They would have carried us direct to the Solomon Islands, but the master of the vessel, a man of much seafaring experience, complained to me in tones of great bitterness that he was not supplied with "trade" appropriate for the Solomons.

"The Solomons," he said, "are too wise now to be caught with glass beads and fish hooks: you can only hook Solomons with muskets; had I been allowed to carry muskets and powder I could have run down to the