One hundred years ago
THE recent disclosures about the traffic which supplies Queensland with the labour wanted for the cultivation of sugar do not give a very encouraging view of Native chances in the customary conflict with the White man. For the moment the Queensland politicians are exceptionally well disposed to do justice by the blacks imported into the Colony. Humanity is reinforced by self-interest. The party in power cares less for the gross produce of sugar than for the certainty that the money spent in pro- ducing it shall go as far as possible into the pockets of settlers of European extraction. It is opposed to the intro- duction of foreign labour of any kind because all such introductions are in- consistent with its cardinal doctrine, 'Queensland for the white man'. But it is by no means certain that this disposi- tion will last. To do justice by the Natives imported into the Colony means, for one thing, that the Natives shall know for what kind of work and for how long a time they engage them- selves, and in practice to ensure this is to check importation. It has been proved that in a great many cases they are absolutely uninformed upon both those points.
Spectator, 27 June 1885
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