SOUTH SEA LABOR TRAFFIC.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1129, 11 March 1872, Page 4

SOUTH SEA LABOR TRAFFIC.

The Times has published a letter from a correspondent who signs himself "Neither a Missionary nor a Planter," relative to the murder of Bishop Patteson. Speaking of tho Santa Cruz Islands, which he states he has visited, the writer says : — " For my own part, I would not think of landing on any of them unless accompanied by at least seven or eight men armed to the teeth, and even then eyes and ears must be ever on tho alert to prevent being thrown off one's guard for a single moment. And I consider that any one going on shore without taking these precautions, whether to trade with the natives or to preach the gospel, is guilty of foolhardiness and presumption. It appears to me that on islands where one's flesh is considered a delicacy, and where one's teeth strung together is admired as a necklace, it is not necessary to look to the outrages of Queensland and Fijian kidnappers as the cause of the murder of an enthusiastic clergyman. The statements made tbat some of these 'labor vessels' have obtained natives by professing to be mission vessels are true. I know of one Queensland vessel that went to another group of islands often visited by the Bishop, where the captain and crew got out a fiddle and flute and several large books ; one of their number threw a white sheet over his shoulders, and they began to sing. When the natives, thus thrown off theiifguard, came crowding on board, the. crew rushed on them, hustled as many as they could below the hatches, and sailed away. I wish I could say that this was all the harm done, but I regret to say that, before the cruise of the vessel was completed, many a poor native met his death after a gallant resistance against tho superior weapons of the white man. No natives being taken to Queensland who betrayed the slightest knowledge of English, these poor savages were all passed by the immigration officer as Polynesian laborers. But before concluding, let me say that it is not only Queensland or Fijian vessels that are guilty of theso atrocities. French vessels from Tahiti are as bad, or worse. Only a few months ago, a vessel from Tahiti landed an armed force on the island of Pern, one of Gilbert's Archipelago, and fairly beat the islanders towards the vesael, just as one would drive pheasants in an English battue."