The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1892. "Playing with Fire"

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 138, 19 May 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1892. "Playing with Fire"

When it was first proposed or suggested that the estates in Queensland should be worked, by slave labour imported from the Islands, we entered 1, our earnest protest against the introduction of this vile crime against ~ humanity into the Australian colonies. By cablegrams recently received from England we are glad to learn that the people in that land of freedom have also raised their voices on behalf of the innocent islanders whom it is the design of some of England's degenerate sons to devote to a life of toil aiid wretchedness which their past mode of life, and physique renders them singularly unfitted to undergo. Sir J. F. Garrick in a letter to the Times on the subject said " The people of England may rest assured the Colonial Government will fearlessly and rigidly enforce the revised rules regarding the employment of Kanaka labor, and that new safeguards will render recruiting as free of evil as the importation of coolies." A distinction without a difference. We do not doubt that Sir J. F. Garrick only echoed the sentiments of the Government which he represents in England as Agent-General, but their are Governments and Governments, therefore one slave Government may be better or worse than the other, but still they will remain slave Governments. The Times, we were told, in commenting on this letter said " there was no possibility of a repetition of the Hopeful " black birding " case." Why so generally sensible and well informed a journal should write such utter nonsense we cannot understand. Human nature does not change by mere legislation and rules however wise or strict these may be. When a ship " goes a black birding " the officers and crew intend to come back with a full hold, and whether the cargo , of human flesh is entered on the ship's L# papers as " recruits "or " slaves " mat- . ters not to them. They are paid by the results. No Government can possibly create safeguards to protect these poor people whom it is intend to place in bondage, from the horrible outrages and abuses perpetrated upon them at r the time they are ensnared from their sunny homes, and afterwards during the vogage by sea. The truth has never been written, nor has it been told in Courts of Law. A seaman, whether officer or "fore the mast hand," may go into this " labor " trade a humane and an honest man, but a very few voyages will transform him into a tyrant and a scoundrel. Any other result is impossible. Of course " Government agents " may be put on board the recruiting vessels, but, in the h'rst place, a man who accepts such employment must either be one whose past life has been a disappointment, or ' one who is "the right color" and knows when to keep his eyes shut to abuses, or who will actively share in . their perpetration. In conclusion we do sincerely hope that the other colonr ies will not stand idly by and allow a 6 sister colony to commit this sin against humanity.