INDENTURED LABOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1921, Page 6

INDENTURED LABOR.

THE POSITION IN SAMOA. Arrangements were made last year for the shipment of an additional 500 indentured Chinese laborers to Western Samoa, to replace Chinese who had been repatriated. The new laborers reached 'Samoa and relieved to some extent the shortage of labor that had been threatening to cause the deterioration of valuable property in Samoa. More labor is required, but the Now Zealand Government is not at present engaging additional coolies. Many of the Chinese who were on the island when it was taken over from the Germans accepted reindenture for a period of two years after the armistice. These reindentures will expire this year, and the men are to be returned to China. Arrangements will be made for the engagement of -fresh labor to take their places. One of the suggestions that has been made fdr the improvement of the conditions of the indentured labor in Samoa is that the Chinese should be encouraged to bring their wives with them. This arrangement would de< ■ crease the danger of intermingling of •the Chinese and the Samoans. An unexpected difficulty in the way of any such arrangement is the refusal of the Chinese women to go to Samoa except as indentured laborers, receiving the [ same wages as the men. The women are accustomed to working with their menfolk, and they are not prepared to be mere dependents on their husbands in Samoa. The Samoan authorities, on the other hand, have not been prepared to accept women laborers for the plantations. .