The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-13
WHAT Of
TIL: FIjTlJRE?
Sugar Interests of
Australia are
Endangered.
KANAKA LABOR
ITS SALVATION
Believed TO be the Only Class of
Workers Which viii Save
Industry.

| trouble in getting a supply OF desira-
bic field laborers to take the place of
the kanakas, who will eventually quit
work. The planters are opposed to
the Importation of Asiatics and yet
there seems to have been offered no
suggestion as to what other labor can
be obtained White laborers have been
tried, but the experiment Seems doubt
full. The white men, it is stated IN the
Australian papers, are physically ca
pable of doing field work, but their
mental twist is such as TO make them
almost unbearable. No mention is
made of importing the American ne
gro to perform the work, but there
seems. a disposition to bring in labor
ers from Polynesia. The South Sea
Islands will be secured in the attempt
to secure more field workers. Col
oured'' laborers with the Australians
means persons from the South Seas.
The Queenslander hints at the ami
hilation of the sugar industry unless
the proper class of laborers can be re-
tanned. 1t believes that the industry
will be killed unless the sources of
labor are left as they are, and is firm
in the belief that the salvation of the
industry lies in the continued impor-
tation of South Sea Islanders.
This opens up new field for the
Hawaiian sugar planters in case the
present Importation of Porto RIcans,
American negroes, and Louisiana ItaI-
ians do not come up to the standard
expected of them.
The Queenslander in a recent Issue
says:
Dor in the sugar industry of Queens
land has long been a fruitful theme OF
controversy among legislators and 9TH
ers who, not being conversant with the
actual facts of the case, have been
prone to view the presence of the Poly
] nesian laborer more in the light of
sentiment than in that of practical
utility. The portentouS announcement
J of the federal prime minister anent the
! eventual abolition of the kanaka la
borer has kindled anew a feeling of
I great concern among planters both
great and small. 1t has created feel
I ing of unrest which in its intensity
I shows that the planters are sincere in
their belief that the determination of
the industry is. inevitable if the only
reliable labor available is, at this
stage. withdrawn.
Is there any danger of the anrihila-
ton of the industry, or even the stay
ing of it's progress for an Indefinite
time, if the means of maintaining the
. present labor conditions are cut off
This and many other contingencies
which converge on the sugar industry
in Queensland crowd upon the mind as
We embark on an errand or investiga-
ton among the planters It's the in
tention to visit the whole of the sugar
districts of the State and to give as
far as practicable, the details associat-
ed with the cultivation and harvesting
of the sugar cane; and as the story Is
! unfolded it is hoped that many who,
while discussing the desira blity of a
L
s udice has in vast number or in
4 stances usurped the place of honest in
4 quiry.
In every part of the world where
Z sugar cane is produced the mental
4 work connected with it is performed
4 by colored labor. The reason is OBJ
vious because the climaIe conditions
essential to the growth of the product
= form the natural living element OF that
3 class of the human race The colored
man being indigenous to parts of the
earth so circumstanced maintains his
powers of endurance under conditions
that the white man, nurtured in tenn
3 perate chimes, finds impossible. His
toric facts go to show that Queensland
: is the only country in the world that
! has tried the experiment. of sugar cane
z growing without the aid of black labor.
and that experiment, as is we'll known
to those engaged in the industry, was
1 a dismal failure. About thirteen years
I the purpose of making a thorough in
] quiry into the black labor question in
this State, reported that ''if colored
D labor be withdrawn from the planta-
tons the extinction of the sugar in
D dustry must speedily follow" We must
j therefore, while keeping in view the
! facts then existent, ascertain how far
\ the present condition of the Industry
4 would warrant the exclusion of kama
. ka labor from our sugar fields, even
along the lines suggested by Mr.. Bar
> ton.
With the possibility of the extinction
of the sugar industry-an industry
which forms the chief producing ele-
ment in our tropics-a number of col
lateral issues crop up, suggesting pos
Sible events of great national impor-
lance to the Australian commonwealth.
Setting aside for the nonce what may
be considered the parochial aspect of
the case, the maintaining and fostering
of the sugar and other tropical indus
tries presents a feature in our rural
and political economy that should
command more than passing attention
from Australian legislators. Australia
as commonwealth. has acquired a
great heritage in her tropical lands,
great in their versatile productiveness.
These lands are adapted for many
crops besides sugar; coffee, tea, cotton,
and many other products grow luXuri-
antly, but the great desideratum is la
DoI 10 produce them, labor suited to
the requirements. The South Sea ISL
ander seems to be the only reliable,
and least undesirable laborer, from a
social point of view, obtainable at
present. The late Mr.. Gladstone once
remarked that The true bulwark and
/ defense of country are the breasts
of free men," and it may be said that
the true bulwark and defense of our
tropical shores can be maintained by
the encouragement of a thrifty popu-
lation-that bold class of yeomanry
which is country's strength. Aus
tralia has an area OF little over
3,000,e 600 square miles and of this Las
600 square miles lie north of the tropfc
of Capricorn. According to CoghIan,
the New South Wales statistician the
mean summer heat in the northern
portion of Australia ranges between s.