NEW HEBRIDES.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1921, Page 5

NEW HEBRIDES.

EVILS OF THE CONDOMINIUM. By Telegraph- Preo'i Association Auckland, Last Night. The Bishop of Melanesia (Dr. Steward) has arrived from Sydney by the Maheno. He estated that there had been trouble in the New Hebrides over enforced recruiting by a half caste Frenchman’s wife. One of the native clergy, though a British resident, had been able to secure a promise that the woman should be returned. The fact that she could be recruited in that fashion showed the unsatisfactory state of affairs under the condominium. Recruits were taken to plantations and not returned. The worst feature was the recruiting of women, married and unmarried, the former without their own men folk. ’ If they were returned to theii villages they * were frequently in bad health. The islands in the group were being practically depopulated by French recruits, who were irresponsible. The French officials seemed unable or unwilling to enforce any regulations in connection with the recruiting of labor. The selling of alcohol to natives was still carried on by the French. Again, apart from these matters one might say the mission was still holding its own, and advancing slowly, though handicapped by a lack of a sufficient staff of white clergy.