IN THE PACIFIC

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1920, Page 4

IN THE PACIFIC

THE KANAKA. “The Future of the Kanaka,” a book by Mr Edward Jacomb, is a plea for a) race whioh has suffered much through contact with civilisation. Over 24 years ago R. L. Stevenson denounced the abuses which were depopulating the Pacific, the white man’s diseases and vices, the “blaek-birding” which carried off whole villages to virtual slavery, the indiscriminate recruiting which, even when conducted on legitimate lines, took from the islands their healthiest natives. Things have changed since Stevenson wrote, but the process of depopulation has gone on steadily, though less swiftly. The regulation of the labour traffic and sympathetic administration have been unable to arrest it. There is more need than over of a constructive policy for the Pacific; the question has assumed greater importance since tho Aar has brought a new grouping in that ocean and imposed new’ responsibilities on the Powers concerned. It touches Australia, in particular, closely.

Mr Jacomb’s interest in the kanaka is exclusively humanitarian. He has no sympathy with those who complain that the islanders are lazy and incapablo of sustained work. Why should they alter their habits of centures for the benefit of an intruder? In the state of nature a minimum of effort enabled the kanaka to satisfy his simple wants. It is morally indefensible to compel him to work either directly or indirectly by creating new wants. In Fiji and elsewhere the labour problem has become acute. A native supply is no longer available; the Indian Government has put a stop to the indenturing of Hindoos; if another source of Oriental labour cannot be found, the commercial prosperity of Fiji is threatened. Mr Jacomb admits the difficulty, but disposes of it in a forth-right fashion. Tfhe commercial! prosperity of Fiji does not interest him; lie is concerned only with the Fijians, who lived happily before the plantations came. He denies the moral right of anyone to import Oriental labour to exploit the resoures of the islands, and he is convinced that any such plan is foredoomed to failure sooner or later. His creed is that “the only role that the white man is allowed by nature to play in tropical climates is that of educator. He can give the natives his superior knowledge, and help them to help them selves to a higher civilisation, and bo of use to white races. If he neglects his proper role fails to educate and thus preserve the natives, and concerns himself merely with making as great immediate monetary profits ns he can, he will merely depopulate the islands and then find them useless. The condition of the Marquesas illustrates this thesis.”

Thus to the humanitarian attraction of his policy of “The Pacific for the Kanaka” is added the practical consideration that it will be more profitable in the long run. In this connection Mr Jacomb remarks that “undoubtedly the only Government in the Pacific which is making any intelligent attempt to develop the kanakas under its charge is the Commonwealth Government of Papua. It is an object lesson to the others.” The failure of the “others” is due to various causes. Mr Jacomb has little that is good to say of the French administration. In the British possessions the officials are well-mean-ing, and try to be sympathetic, but too often have little knowledge of natives’ psychology. ,An elaborate punitive expedition (of which little was heard of at the time) conducted by the French and Australian forces in 1916 in the New Hebrides was a case in point. It accomplished nothing beyond puzzling and antagonising the natives. The, treatment of the land is another instance of short-sightedness. The Americans in Hawaii, and the British in Fiji and elsewhero have allowed the native to retain property in the bulk of the .land, in theory a humane and nltuistie policy. In practice, however, it has worked badly. The authorities have not taught the natives to use the land properly, and as a result in the absence of any restraints of alienation they sell it to the first bidder. “The natives are spoiled in the present, while no provision is being made for them in the future.’ In Papua ,on the other hand, the Government reserves the eminent domain over tho land, and in thus able to protect the native against his own inexperience and the attentions of unscrupulous purchasers. For it must not be forgotten that the Melanesian has no more business instinct than a child. Ho cannot count above ten; he has no conception of value; money means little to him. “He would sell , a hundred or a thousand acres for a bottle of grog just as readily as he would sell half an acre I for the same thing. Mr Jacomb also insists that if the kanaka is to come to his own the white men who deal wth him must have something more than humanity and a knowledge of his character and customs. Conscientiousness and good intentions are not enough; they must be supplemented bv other qualities. “No man should bo allowed to settle in the Pacific in any capacity unless lie has one basic qualification, and that is ai genuine instructtive like for tho sympathy with natives. This is a quality which a man has or has not. It is born with him, and it is not a matter for pride and eulogium in possession of censure in deficiency. A very large percentage of settlers officials, and even missionaries at the present day dislike natives. They despite them as an inferior race, good only for mental tasks. Such men should not be there.” Mr Jacomb’s book touches on controversial issues, and probably there will be many who dispute both his premises and his conclusions. But no one can doubt its sincerity, and it is an interesting contribution to the literature of a subject which is attracting an increased amount of attention.