SOUTH SEA LABOR TRAFFIC.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 76, 28 August 1874, Page 3

SOUTH SEA LABOR TRAFFIC.

The Wide Bay News states that it has been generally understood that the schooner Native Lass, which arrived here last week from the islands, had returned rather sooner than was originally intended, and reports of a hitch have been floating about. We (Melbourne Daily Telegraph) have been favored with a perusal of the diary kept by the Government agent, and learn the following particulars :It appears that when the Native Lass was at Ainbryro. on the 4th July, the agent became aware that there were only 400 lb of salt meat on board the vessel. He at once informed Captain Taylor that as, by the regulations, each recruit was to be furnished with 1 lb of meat per diem, and as it was evident that the stock would not last, he would be compelled to refuse to sign for any more recruits unless a further supply was obtained. The captain tried to get meat, but failed, and the vessel was therefore compelled to return to Maryborough without her full complement. There was plenty of rice and biscuits, and a good supply of yams, but the captain informed the agent that he could not supply the islanders with any meat at all. It appears also that only a ton of salt meat was put on board at Maryborough, and a portion of that had to be thrown overboard, as it had gone bad. The captain said that he had never been in the habit of giving meat on his previous voyages. The diary further mentions that at several places recruits could not be got, or only with difficulty, in consequence of complaints made by return islanders that they had not been fairly treated. Three natives of Apii, that had been at service near Maryborough, signed a declaration in presence of witnesses that they had been short paid £7 10s each. Two natives of Tanna also found it impossible to get their late employer to pay their return passage money. One of them worked his way back as a sailor, and paid, out of his own fund, £4 for the passage of his friend. The agent speaks in high .terms of praise of the kindness shown by Captain Taylor and the crew to the natives, especially when sick, and expresses his conviction that at the islands they visited kidnapping would be impossible, as the men came fully armed with guns and bows down to the boats, and mustered in such numbers that they could easily have overpowered the boat's crew. We forgot to mention that the agent expresses his private belief that while among the islands the full allowance of meat, as laid down in the Act and regulations, would not be necessary and perhaps prejudicial to the health of the islanders, being such a sudden change from a purely vegetable diet. On the voyage to Queensland meat would have been useful, as the weather got cold on passing New Caledonia, aud their diet was chiefly rice and biscuit. In any case he was acting, not on his own belief but on the strictly defined law laid down for his guidance.