ISLAND PRIDE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 298, 12 September 1919, Page 3

ISLAND PRIDE

. 4—.. / AND THE LABOUR QUESTION. ;

A Wellington resident who has lately had exceptional opportunities for studying South Sea- Island problems, especially those connected with Samoa, has great hopes for tho condominium Ono of tho most perplexing problems in the Islands had to do with labour difficultica. Theso had little iclation to the labour troubles of tho Dominion, but was none the less real,' For example, it was known that both German and British planters in Samoa could do little real work without the aid of imported labour, which tool: the. form of Chinese, who made exoellent plantation workers. When Colonel Logan deported theso coolios from Samoa tho plantations began at onoe t» deteriorate until many fell to ruin simply through neglect caused by shortage of labour. Many people were under the impression that the Stimoan natives are inherently lazy, and quoted the above case in support of that contention, Our informant states that it is n0t.60/ The Samoa.ii, it. was true, would not work in Samoa, Irtit ho would work at Fiji'or Tonga, so. was it true that .Indian <:oo!io labour had to ho imported into Fiji bncauso thu Fijians would not work, yet the transplanted Fijian nwdo a very good worker in Samoa. ' The' Solomon Islanders worn to do steady manual labour for another in their own group, but when deported to Queensland years ago they wero good workors. Some innate pride, common throughout Polynesia, seemsd to exist which prevented natives of Island groups working ftr another in their own territory, a l'rido which did not extend to other island groups. The problem then appeared* to be a simple one—employ Fijians in Samoa and vice Tcrsn, It had always worked well on a small scale in the past. There was no reason why it should not be successful if .attempted in a'big way. The visitor, who was at Apia for a time, stated that Colonel Tate appeared to bo doing excellent work as Acting-Administrator.