The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-08-23

~ er. in view of the great impor-
lance Of the question of culored
labor for the we'll being of the sugar
industry, the supply of which is threat
ened with being eventually stopped by
the action of the federal government
sent a special commissioner to repor,
on the circumstances connected with
the present carrying on of the industry
in Queensland.
The Queenslander commissioner WIS.,
tied the Isis, Bundaberg and Bingera
districts, and the result Of his iuvesti-
| cations shows the fallacy of the idea
OF carrying on profitable production of
| cane sugar with only white men as
| laborers. one cane planter OF farmer
| after another told the same story OF
the unrelabiity of the white laborer,
of his physical unfitness for heavy
work of trashing and cutting in tr0b-
| zeal cane fields. his indisposition for
| such continued heavy work, his inso-
lence and INSTRUMENTATION. and absurd
and unfair demands, and finally the
| irregularity of the supply of such Ia
Dor. To this must be added the in
| termittent nature of the demand for
special labor connected with trashing
and cutting, as 1t only lasts at most
| about three months every year
|
ands is alluded to by the reporter. In
| that country, contrary to the consti-
| tutional law of the United States, the
planters were allowed to employ Ash
| attic labor for a time, and meanwhile
agents were despatched to the United
States and Canada, who sent oyer sew
| eral gangs of white laborerS They
We're set to work and received good
wages, but they got tired of the work
and paid the colored laborers to do it
| for them.
The Australian premier, who has
been making tour of Queensland,
$, id that small holdings would solve
| the problem of white versus black la
| DOR, totally overlooking the fact that
even though the productiveness OF the
land were greatly increased by this
system, still the main difficulty would
remain, that of the incapacity of the
whit, man TO- such severe physical
eyertion under tropical sun in the
close atmosphere of the cane field.
The managers of the Childers mill,
belonging to the Colonial Sugar Rein
ing Company, did not think there was
the slightest possibility OF getting
white men to work in the cane fields,
even in Southern Queensland. notwith-
standing its close proximity to the
principal labor centers.
The farmers in the Bundaberg dis
| trict, who all employ Kanakas for cane
cutting. considered the white man to
be capable of the work. but stated
he would not do II at any price If he
could avoid it, as it taxed the physical
endurance of the strongest man: they
further said there was often a scarcI-
ty of such labor just at critical juno
lures.
The managers of a large plantation
in the Bundaberg district were of the
.At.i t., hyt H. .,.,sE,.
kanaka labor it would be impossible
to continue cane growing. and related
the experience of three white men who
came from New South Wales and took
up forty acres of scrub land, fully In
tending and resolved to do their own
work, but who eventually had to beg
for n gang of Kanakas to complete the
work, and then left the district. The
man who next took up the land worked
it by the ordinary method using col
ored labor for the heavy work, and is
there still, doing well.
The proprietor of another plantation
mentioned among other statements
call to the same effect as those pre-
yiOusly heard) having once engaged
twenty-one white laborers to cut cane.
They started in the early morning, but
when the overseer went an hour or two
later to see how the work was pro-
crossing. he found all gone but three
and the cane cut a foot from the
ground.
one of the Messrs Young, the well
known proprietors of Fairymead plan
tation, who have had some twenty
years experience in the district spoke
emphatically on the question OF Poly
nesian labor as a necessity from the
point of view of the maintenance of thu
labor supply, as we'll as from that of
the financial success of the industry.
The farmers of the Bingera district
We're singularly unanimous in express
ing determination to abandon cane
cultivation If the only reliable means
of carrying 1t on. that of using Kama
ka labor, was rendered unavailable"
Whey are all strong democrats, but rec
ognize that the success of the indus
try is only possible with the aid Of the
Kanaka. The representative OF the
Queenslander closes by saying that a.
he neared the end of his investigation
in the sub-tropical districts, he could
only reflect on the monotonous reitera-
ton of the answer: impossible to
grow sugar successfully without til.
aid of the kanaka," even though some
of the farmers who gave this opinion
held what might be termed strong la
Dor views. In one case the manager
dismissed the question with a con-
temptuous wave of the hand" The
following seems conclusive: THE man.
ager of the Millaquin and Yengari Su-
gar Company, of Bundaberg, gave
some interesting particulars concerning
the employment of Polynesian labor
and its effect on the industry, both as
regards the production of the sugar
and the subsequent refining process |
When the crisis occurred due 10 legis- ,
lation preventing the Kanaka from be- |
ing employed in the sugar fields, much
land being cleared to supply new mills .
was allowed to revert to forest. and
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