The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-03-29

Editor Star: Without wishing tot
pose as an ardent admirer of the labor
conditions obtaining on our planta
lions, it may not be inopportune to
point out the contrast between the
wages paid on our cane plantations
and those doled out to the laborers on
the Fijian fields
The Fijian planter brings by the
ship load his laborers from the pow
erty-stricken districts of Southern
India, and the current allegations Of
Misrepresentation by the labor agents
are as rife there as here.
The rate of pay in Fiji for these
miserable immigrants, victims of the
indenture system, is one shilling al
day-24 cents of our money. Not
only so, but before the shilling is
earned the coolie has to perform a
certain amount of work, measured byI
the luna without consultation with or
consideration of, the wretched work
man.
For this paltry shilling the Hindoo
is compelled to work under climatic
conditions that would be deemed in
tolerable by our plantation laborers,
who get four times the amount of pay
for his work that his brother worker
three thousand miles south receives
And the women! Certainly they
work also, but receive only half the
pay for an equal amount of work.
Heavens, how could any woman claim
anything like a mans wage in this
sink of the British Empire?
In their charity, due to the influ-
ence of their religion, the English
: plantation authorities have estab,
lished creches for the babies and tod
r dlers during the absence at work of
C their mothers. an incidental visit TO
one of these institutions ought to
Y satisfy a most ardent seeker of earth
horrors. Imagine a scrambling, crawl
ing, shrieking, yelling, bawling
screeching, fostering mass of helpless
< black humanity, many with eyes
swollen and bunged, some maddened
with the bites of vermin, some quiet
and still through sheer exhaustion
= others fixed and moribund with lines
Of flies marking the margins of their
quivering eyes; others again in con
vulsions, one here and there still in
death, but all, without exception, be
smirched with their own ordure;
multiply your impression of this
scene hundred fold and you begin
to realize the horror of Fijian cane
t. field creche.
Some one asks-I mean one who
. regards missionaries seriously from {
Christ and not the dollar standpoin-
but what are the Christian mission
aries of the islands doing? They are
/. praising God in the churches, O
course, what more can be expected O
It them? Surely no one is foolish enough
to think they should leave their pay
It ing, fashionable congregations to lool
after little, rotting niggers. What al
t. absurdity!
Many of Christ's vicars--I meal
many who use the words Christ" an,
r christian" as a bait, but really cor
g centrate on the dollar-are seriousl
10 studying the Gothenburg system O
If drink regulation and to be prepare
for arguments pro and con on sub
jecting themselves to liberal course
of the various wares that come unde
e that liquid term. Fiji has a yer
. warm and trying climate; why Shout
- not Ohrists Wears thirst for win
10 be assuaged there as well as, ay
old England or bonnie Scotland?
About the treatment of the mise
able, poverty-stricken, defenseles
girls and women by the so-calle
white men" of the islands draw