§ MR. P. A. TAYLORsaid, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If he will state what course the Government has taken, or intends to take, in regard to the deportation of South Sea Islanders?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, he must remind his hon. Friend, in the first place, that 528 a very small proportion of the evils which he wished to remove could be, in any way, attributed to the British colonies. The deportation of which the hon. Gentleman complained was confined chiefly to the Fiji, Samoan, and other islands, and what he had said was confirmed strongly by a charge delivered by the Chief Justice of Sydney, in which he stated that the Government of Queensland had used every endeavour to prevent the evils of deportation. Her Majesty's Government, at the same time, were entirely sensible of their responsibility in this matter. His noble Friend (Earl Granville) had addressed a despatch to the Governor of Queensland, impressing upon him the necessity of controlling in the strictest manner possible all immigration from the South Sea Islands into Queensland, recapitulating the recommendations of the Commission which had sat in Queensland on the Amendment of the Emigration Law, and calling the Governor's attention to the proportion of females to males required to be introduced, and to the necessity of having an emigration agent on board of every ship which brought immigrants from the South Sea Islands. His noble Friend had added that he could not too strongly impress on the Governor the necessity of making such an amendment in the existing Act as would make its working safe, and insure beyond controversy that labourers were not brought into the colony against their will, and that faith should be kept with them as to their agreements. His noble Friend had also transmitted to the Governors of Queensland and the other Australian Colonies the copy of a letter addressed by the Earl of Clarendon to Her Majesty's Consul in Fiji, calling for full and accurate information as to the whole subject, and informing him that any suggestions for placing the trade on a sound footing, or putting an end to it altogether, would be well received by Her Majesty's Government.
§ MR. P. A. TAYLORsaid, he wished to know whether the regulation as to an emigration agent applied to ships going or returning?
§ MR. MONSELLsaid, he imagined that the Government agent would be on board ship whether going or returning, but that was a matter entirely within the province of the Government of Queensland.