AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3473, 29 April 1920, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

CONDITIONS IN PAPUA. _ I Received 10.15 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. Mr J. Benstead, Government agent for Papua in Sydney‘, has returned from a visit to ‘?apua. He said the agitation against Mr .'Murl-ay"s administration was due to the C?overnment’s alleged pampering of the natives, some of whom sorely needed pampering or more humane treatment. Mr Benstead quoted a, mag-isterial report on native la'b‘our on certain plantations in 1918, which stated that the natives received.,one meal daily, consisting df a quarter of 3. pound of rice, and a. few sweet potatoes, which were given to them after they had been working 7% to 9 hours. They worked seven days a week from 5.30 in the morning to six o’clock at night Fierce dogs were kept and used against the natives, who were continually beaten by the whites. Most of the natives received no clothes, and went naked on plantations, which are situated between two and three thousand feet above sea level. The nights are hitterly cold, and several have died. Mr Benstead concluded: Although the treatment described was not confined to one plantation, the majority of planters treated the labourers well.

- The Federated’ Seamen’s Union has appointed 0. Burke, of Queensland, a delegate to the Genoa Congress.

Justice Ewing has accepted 3, com~ mission from the State Government to inquire into cases of the‘ Industrial Workers df the World prisoners. The City Council has voted £3OOO to entertain the Prince of Wales.

MELBOURNE, this day. The first instalmentof a hundred. gift aeroplanes has arrived. V »

V The Government is introducing a Bill in the House of R-epresentatives providing for the representation of the Northern Territory in the Federal Par--li;'-imér'lt,':l,'x'(’f ‘am Elcet~i”vn CB‘-.lnt-i-Iv..inv 'Paplia,ru'~liio?~ 117$ rmi; been givo.lr7ro-A. 'lsresé}l‘tei..fi,orr‘ in fParliarmenf. _