The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-16 00:00:00

JAPANESE LABOUR AND EMIGRATION.

The British Consul at Kanagawa reports as fol-
lows: A feature in the affairs at this port has been
the emigration scheme to the Sandwich Islands,
which appears to have found favour with the
Japanese, and offers a good field for the employment
of labour. A Special Commissioner has acted on
behalf of the Hawaiian Government, and each intend-
ing emigrant has signed an agreement, to which the
aforesaid Commissioner is a party, before his own
authorities at the Prefecture of this district. The
agreement is, of course, voluntary in every respect,
for the Japanese Government is fully cognisant of the
evils that may attend any emigration scheme put
before them which will not bear thorough scrutiny;
the Japanese people, too, are quite alive to
the danger of binding themselves to service
by a form of agreement under which
might lurk conditions incompatible with the
generally accepted ideas of free labour. The terms
under which each emigrant goes to Hawaii are set
forth in the agreement, of which I have a copy before
me, and they may be thus summarised : a steerage pas-
sage is provided to Honolulu, free of expense, and
including food, to each male emigrant, wife, and one
child. The Hawaiian Government bind themselves
to provide him with employment as an agricultural
labourer for a period of three years, also employment
for wife is desired. Wages are guaranteed at the
rate of 9 dols. a month for the man,
and 6 dols. a month for the wife. Payment is
stipulated to be made in gold or silver coin; a
monthly allowance is made for food, 6 dols., 5 dole.,
and 1 dol. in the case of a man, woman, and child
respectively, this being in addition to what is paid
as wages. Monthly service as an agricultural labourer
is by the agreement held to mean 26 work-
ing days of either 10 or 12 hours a day, according as
the work is performed in the open field or in the
sugar-house. Medical attendance and medicines are
furnished free of cost, and exemption from every kind
of personal tax is granted for a period of three years.
A noticeable feature in the agreement is that 25 per
cent. of the wages earned by man and wife is to be
banked, through the Japanese Consulate, in the
Hawaiian Government Postal Savings Bank; the
sums so banked are to carry interest at the rate of
5 per cent. per annum, and are not to be withdrawn
except with the sanction of the consul. In the
,reement I notice that cleaned rice is to be supplied
to the emigrants by the Hawaiian Govemment at a
price not to exceed 5 cents. pr lb., which amounts to
6 dols. 66 cents. per pieul (133 - lbs.). Rice costs in
Japan, say 3 dols. per pictil, and can be laid down in
the Sandwich Islands at 4 dols.; if, therefore, the rice
is retailed at 5 cents, per lb., a clear profit of 2 dols.
per picul thus accrues to the Government. Possibly
5 cents. are stated as the maximum price, and the
grain will doubtless be retailed at a less cost to the
emigrant so long as the Government is secure against
a loss. The first batch of emigrants left this in
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's steamer City
of Tokio on the 26th January of last year, and
numbered in all 945, of whom 707 were males, 169
females, and 69 children. Another emigration
scheme was, I believe, put before the Japanese
authorities at this port in the course of last year,
which had for its object the employment of Chinese
labour in Vancouver Island, but for some reason or
another, and owing perhaps to the circumstance
that the scheme was one of private specu-
lation, and was not put for ward by the Colonial
Government, it fell through. It is as well it should
be generally known that the Japanese Government
have little sympathy with schemes for the employ-
ment of Japanese abroad in large numbers, unless
there is some reasonable guarantee that the object in
view is not one of an ignoble character that the pro-
moters are of assured respectability, and that they
recognise fully the responsibility entailed by taking
Japanese from their own country to serve at a great
distance from its shores. Men of prominent position
in England and other countries should, I think be on
their guard against lending their names by way of
favourable notice of any enterprise which seeks to
employ Japanese labour on a large scale, unless
they satisfy thsmselves that the undertaking is one
to which countenance can properly be given.
My remarks are not directed against any one
particular organisation, seheme, or arrangement; but
I have seen enough to know that good names are in-
discriminately lent at home to companies or under-
takings connected with Japan and the Japanese that
have little or no claim to such friendly assistance,
not to mention, too, that Japanese in authority in
this country find it difficult to understand how pro-
minent names can be obtained to the prospectuses of
undertakings which, under cover of very specious pro.
grammes, are prompted by motives of self-interest
and have money-maßing alone for their object.

I agree

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