Untitled

Evening Star, Issue 3093, 17 January 1873, Page 2

Connected with the Pacific Slave trade, the atrocity of which has been so amply demonstrated in the horrid details of the Carl murders, the following passage appears in the Fiji Crazdte, of December 21st: —■ We notice an article from the Sydney Morniuy erald which involves the grave charge against the Fijian Government of alleged connivance in a case of kidnapping. The tone of the Press shows very plainly the prevailing idea held in the Colonies, as to the real cause of any possible interference by England. It is not to protect her subjects, but to look after their misdeeds, as regards kidnapping aud other barbarities. that England claims the right of putting a veto on their power to throw off their allegiance. By this step the hands of the Fijian Government will be materially strengthened. Hitherto they have had but her moral support; now England will insist on her subjects being held liable for those misdeeds which the Fijian Parliament last session did its utmost —by stringent legislation —to suppress. A year ago a despatch might have been read with a double meaning ; but now that he has practically sanctioned the acts of those who assisted to form a Government here, there is but one inference to he drawn from it, namely, that if the Hjian Government either do not or cannot punish British subjects for offences against “The Kidnapping Act of 1872,” or for other crimes, the avenging hand of a man-of-war will do it for them. We believe the power—as without doubt the will -exists i» Fiji to check these malpractices. If not, we gladly hail the prospect of a flag, which wo all revere, being engaged in assisting it in the task. That Fiji should look after vessels cruising hundreds of miles away is an impossibility, and a few English cruisers will do that well and effectually. But that Fiji should see that none but willing emigrants land on her shores - that employers, British or otherwise, treat their laborers with justice and humanity, and that the terms of their agreement are strictly adhered to, is a duty which the Government owe as much to themselves as to the civilised world. That in many instances such supervision is almost needless wo are glad to admit, but men of an inferior race like foreign laborers here can never be safely delivered over to the arbitrary will of any master. For their welfare and due interests the State is responsible, and it must exercise that control for which the recently passed Acts of the Legislature provide. We regret that there are men disposed to dispute oven this right; but they may rest assured that it is one which the Government will strictly uphold, and in upholding it they will obtain the sanction of any power whoso subjects may render themselves liable to prosecution. We need not waste words to prove tLat, not only in the manner of procuring slave labor, but on the high seas, ynd after they land the imported laborers .are liable to outrage. What idle talk it is to suppose a few British cruisers can put a stop to kidnapping. Who biit a visionary would indulge the idea that a Government like that of Fiji, with a number of interested men ready to oppose its control, is in a position to see that “ none but willing emigrants land on her shores,” and that “employers, British or otherwise, treat their laborers yvith justice aud humanity P" A Government that is confessedly powerless to exert the least influence over the slave catchers, when engaged in their black traffic, can do nothing after the deed is done, and the slaves are ready to be landed. Suppose it turned out that they were unwilling emigrants, what then 9 Fine the captain, and order them to be taken back to their outraged countrymen ? Is that tin? remedy ? The idea is too absurd to be seriously entertained: in loss than twenty-tour hours after leaving port, either that vessel’s course would bo shaped for Queensland, or there would not bo an unwilling living emigrant on board. The “ Kidnapping Act, 1872,” is a mere farce, and must bo so, so long as the idea continues to be entertained that the imported laborers are “men of an inferior race.” We suppose that is the excuse for making them work. We do not like the idea of traffic in human flesh being treated as a pounds, shillings, aud pence affair—as a question of expediency. Wc believe in human liberty, and know of no right that one man lias to characterise another as of inferior race, because his faculties arc less trained and his perception of human rights and human duties less clear. But when it is made a mercenary question, and when the trade is based upon rendering certain countries fertile that would lie uncultivated, because European constitutions cannot endure the climatic influences while working exposed to them,

it is worth enquiring what is to be gained by thus outraging human rights. So far as Fiji is concerned, we have no statistics ; but with regard to Queensland we wove supplied a few days ago. It appears from them that during 1871, in order to cultivate 13.000 acres planted with cotton and 9,500 planted with sugar, the annual produce of both being worth about £120,000 gross, it was necessary to import 1.852 laborers, in addition to those in the country; 750, however, were sent home again-—at least they say so. The statistics arc, however, silent as to the number resident in the Colony. To obtain this miserable annual sum, the stain of slavery is allowed once more to attach to the British Colonial Empire, the whole Polynesian race are to be alienated from friendly intercourse with other Colonics, and a British fleet is to be employed in supervising the trade and acting the part of the water police —at what cost ?In all likelihood at a greater expense to Great Britain than the whole produce of the slave labor in Queensland. A very pretty commercial speculation indeed !