THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 98, 18 April 1914, Page 3

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

VIEWS OF A PLANTER. Amongst the passengers who arrived in Sydney on Good Friday by the Pncifiquo from the New Hebrides -.v.is Mr A. Roche, a well-known Australian planter, from Sandwich, one of the Southern islands of the group. Mr Roche has been in basilicas in the islands as a grower for the pant 25 years. He informed a "Daily Telegraph" representative that tha Condominum is not satisfactory to anybody, French, English, or Austra-

lian. "The alleged Court of Justice." he said, "is a farce. What could vou have worse than a court of justtive in such a place where you have absolutely no appeal? Why, in Australia you can even appeal against the High Court, which seems to show that, at any rate, everybody is not considered to be infallible, but in the New Hebrides the position is quite different, and it seems to me thai there is'hardly the ability and knowlodge associated with the New Hebrides Court that there hs in the Australian High Court. One Tiling or the Oihor.

"It ought to be one thing or the other," he declared, "French or Englist." Although an Australian. 1 would hesitate to say that the Commonwealth should have control. All ; ort;> of stories are being spread about the French and what they do, but you don't hoar what the English do. rtiero are good and bad in all cases, and so far 1 have never found anything wrong with the French. "Again, you hear a great deal about unrest amongst the natives. Well, so far as I can see, the unrest only applies to one island, Malekula. In the portions of the islands that 1 know, the natives are quite quiet. All these yarns about the native unrest, the Ambrym volcano, and the alleged blight to the cocoanut plantations are, in my opinion, exaggerated. As a matter of fact, the cocoanut plantations have not now a trace of biight upon them, except in possibly one or two islands, and they are now looking splendid. They never looked better.

"The fly in the amber? Well, labor. Twenty-five years ago, when 1 first vent to the Islands, native labor, per head, cost us £'.i or £4 per annum, and there was plenty of it. Now ii costs from £8 to £l2 per head, it is hard to get, and it is not permanent, and that is what hits the planter. One rime we could get the boys for four and five year periods, but now we amy only reckon on from six to 12 months, and lucky if they last the longer period. What is the result? Well, we make preparations for a ;vood crop when we have the labor, and then, possibly we lose the crop, or the greater part of it, because the boys have gone away,' and we have been unable to replace them. "Recruiting is carried on under the most difficult conditions, but to say that it costs £4O per head to re?

! ruit boys is ridiculous. Still, 1 know ifc will be said. It costs £3 per head to get the boys in the first place, and if only a few are obtained on the expeditions, the cost naturally mounts up. It might run to £7, £lO, or £l2, or even more on isolated occasions, and then, of course, there are other expenses. Still, it never reaches within nounds of £10."