INDENTURED LABOR IN SAMOA.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 April 1920, Page 4

INDENTURED LABOR IN SAMOA.

VIEWS OF MR. L. M. IS EXT. CHRISTCHURCH, April 20. Mr L. M. Isitt M.P. gave a n address on indentured labour in Samoa at itlie meeting of the Council of the Churches last night. Air Isitt, in the course of his remarks, said that ho was not prepared now to take up the position that he had taken in the House when lie first spoke on the subject, and when lie said that he regarded indentured labour with suspicion and dislike and that indentured labour should he tolerated only until free labour could take its place. The extreme Labourites, as far as he could judge, did not approach the matter with a desire to find some solution, or key, of the problem; their idea was to push it by all possible means as a political issue. The one people likely to handle Samoan affairs with due regard to the interests of the natives were the people of New Zealand. (Applause). After describing the methods adopted by the recent Parliamentary party which visited Samoa, in obtaining information. Mr Isitt said that planters and missionaries agreed that what was wanted was that the term of indenture should bo made a rigid one—the missionaries said three years, the planters said from three to five years; it was also necessary to make the permit provisions a reality. The whole sex trouble would be finished if the Chinese authorities would give the Chinese coolies permissnon to take their wives with them to Samoa. If the indentured labour system was not retained it would mean the ruin not only of the European cocoanut plantations, hut- of all the eoacoanut plantations from one end of the island to the other. Indentured labour, per sc, was neither wrong nor viciouls; it was the conditions under which the indentured labour was conducted that were wrong; wages and accommodation could be provided for by statute law. He had returned convinced that as regards free labour and indentured labour, he would stand by indentured labour every time. It was necessary or the. preservation of the Samoans themselves.

Mr Isitt was questioned at considerable length. The principal point raised against him was that taken by the Rev .T. ,T. North, who contended that Mr Isitt had not established the necessity for the perpetuation of the plantations, or that they wore essential to the prosperity and happiness of the Samoans. The Rev William Carey, a descendant of Dr William Carey, the distinguished Baptist missonary, who is .a missionary in India, spoke on similar lines to those . of Mr North. Mr Isitt said that the cocoanut plantations of the Samoans provided close upon seven-eighths of their necessities. He made it plain that ho did not advocate indentured labour in Samoa only on behalf of the planters, or from purely commercial considerations. Asked -whether the native mind had expressed itself on the subject, Mr Isitt replied that it was difficult, almost impossible, to get at the mind of the Samoans; they would fence and would lie back with ; the intention of trying to get an idea) what, their questioners wanted them to • say. I 1

A vote of tli.inks was accorded Mr Tsitt, and it Kras announced tTiat at tlio next meeting of the Council tho subject would ho dealt with by a representative Labour