THE DARK PLACES OF THE EARTH.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 10, 18 April 1868, Page 3

THE DARK PLACES OF THE EARTH.

BY .BAM JONES. ! The dark places of the earth more par- 1 ticularly interesting irie v at present are the | New Hebrides Islands. I had the pleasure of hearing the Rev. Mr. Copeland expatiate on these delightful little haunts of the mosquito, when he visited Australia and New Ze&and, afew months ago, for the purpose'Bf exciting the sympathies of the colonists'on. Behalf of the New Hebrides mission. He drew a sad picture of the natives, the misery of savage life, the privation, starvation, and fear they lived in — all my sunny picturings of the ease security and light-heartedness of the South Sea Islanders vanished. I possibly thought the picture a little overtouched, and that things might not seem to all eyes ' quite so sombre as he represented them. But still, I was much and sorrowfully impressed with the condition of the poor islanders. Eight missionaries on that

group%j«re lately sent a petition to the Governors of the Australian Colonies, concerning what they term a system of "traffic in human beings'* carried on there j being, according to their shewing, neither more nor less than the kidnapping of natives to work on plantations. Tha statement accompanying the petition hits the traffickers in human beings ten: knockdown blows— lst. Many natives are taken fraudulently and by force. 2nd. Great' hardships and privations endured by them. 3rd. Severe bodily injury, and even death. 4th. When they do go of their own accord, there is no security for their being paid. sth. They are k«pt away for longer periods than they were engaged for. 6th. Many of them very poorly paid. 7th. Their wiveß get tired of singleness, and marry again. Bth. Tha strongest and most active men are taken. 9th. Those who are oftenest and longest away, are generally the worst and most dangerous characters. 30th. The system is under no adequate supervision and control. These ten arguments are supported by instances ; but these instances are weak, and in no way calculated to leave »•' deep impression of cruelty and wrong.* But as regards the items -Ist. That many are taken fraudulently, I can have no doubt, knowing the nature of sea cap* tains. 2nd. That greater hardship and privation is endured by them than Mr. Copeland represented them as meeting with during a great part of the year, I think unlikely. 3rd. Severe bodily injury and even death awaita them every day from lurking enemies, and I think their chances of life and unbroken limbs on the whole quite a«« good on shipboard and on the plantations, as at home ; and I understand the petition as referring to the sea voyage, not plantation usagr* 4th. When they do go of their own accord, they may not haver much security of payment, but a bellyful and a breechcloth, and their modest wants are satisfied. sth. They may have been kept away longer than engaged for, but no instanceis given to show that the natives were not consenting parties. I don't wonder if they find the full feeding of the plantations preferable to the long fastings which, by Mr Copeland's showing, they have at home. 6th. They may be poorly I paid in European estimation, but if they are satisfied themselves, it is nobody's ! business. 7th. Their wives may get married anew when they are away, but as maniage does not seem of a veiy binding nature among them, they might have done the same had they remained at home. Bth. I don't see how the planters can be blamed for preferring the strongest and most active men, their plantations being commercial speculations, not benevolent institutions. 9th. Tho missionaries would have done better to have kept ninthly out. " Those who are oftenest and longest away," they say, thereby admitting that the natives do return, go away, and return again, all of their own accord. The statement would have beon more effective had ninthly been suppressed. 10th. The system is under inadequate supervision and control. It is only right it shonld be so, but who is to control it is not so clear. It will be seen that my sympathies are not altogether witli the petitioners, and it is because of the statements of one of themselves that they are not. Mr. Copeland represented the natives as beinsf subject to every passion and vice that could disgrace humanity, as living in perpetual fear aud misery, and as having, .reached a depth of degradation below winch we could not imagine mankind f Ailing. Allowing white settlers in these parts to be as wicked, godless, and unjust as missionaries can paint them, could association^ with them injure the natives ? Could they learn any more of vice than they already, know and practice ? I think not ; and getting aside Christianity, would they not. learn at least white men's modes of working ; how best to cultivate the soil, how to use tools and implements, some notions of commerce; and that book learning, which is the power that raises the white man so far above themselves 1 I think they . would. That advantage may be taken of their ignorance, and that undue severity and even cruelty may in some cases be shown to them, Ido not doubt ; but Ido most honestly doubt if any severity or injustice has been, or is likely to be, shown them to counter-balance great advantages they are likely to" derive from an intercourse with 'the- whites. vlnv In the ten reasons set forth 'for' the suppression of the traffic, there is much to afford church members who delight to meddle in affairs of which they know nothing, and with which they have nothing to do, an opportunity to groan over and propose remedies for, but nothing worthy of causing any interference, further than, where practicable, seeing that the engaged natives are well used and paid their jnst dues. They are engaged for a term, sometimes* few years, sometimes afejfr months, at the expiration of that term they are free to return home. There 4s. no Jifelong slavery ; their children are npt' doomed to servitude after them ; but th«r labors of a few months, an apprenticeship to the white man's mode of working, a knowledge of which they will carry home with them, and thus be able to raise their food with greater ease than they ever did before. There is no hardship in the caso, because in the white man's service the islander is better than he could be, being his own master. Circumstances alter cases, and with a race fallen so low, kidnapping them into the ways of civilisation ought to be rejoiced in rather than frowned at. There is another phase of the question I have not touched upon. ' ' Queensland, i Fiji New Caledonia, Tahiti, Torres Straits, and other part*," as the statement has it, are places which whites are fast settling and brining under cultivation. Without the aid of native labor, they would be powerless ; they have the brain and the energy, but white labor m tropical climates is not to be thought of. But when each white head has a dozen or two of black hands to work out its ideas, " Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Tahiti Torres Straits, and other parts,' may be expected to flourish. There is also another phase of the question more immediately affecting myself. I have, thanks to good luck and hard work, scraped afew pounds together, which I think could J>o very well laid out in one. of these places, and with a score of blaok fellows working for me on the tucker system, I coulil seea chance of that ease ana comfort I havfr been so long hunting after. (CoT>\i»nnK**ttiL)