HC Deb 16 May 1895 vol 33 cc1318-9
*MR. J. F. HOGAN (Mid Tipperary)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to the statement of Dr. Cecil Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, that Sir J. B. Thurston, Her Majesty's High Commissioner in the Western Pacific, had informed him, after a recent cruise amongst the islands, that he had been saddened throughout his jurney by the evidences of the fearful depopulation resulting from the Queensland labour traffic; whether he is aware that it was admitted, in the course of a recent trial at Brisbane for kidnapping, that the Government Agent on board the labour-recruiting vessel William Manson had sanctioned the taking on board of seven single women contrary to the regulation forbidding the recruiting of women unless they volunteered with their husbands, and that other irregularities occurred on the same vessel with the cognisance of the Government Agent; and whether, in view of this recrudescence of the malpractices associated with this traffic in bygone years, he will urge upon the Governor of Queensland and Her Majesty's High Commissioner in the Pacific the necessity of the utmost vigilance and the closest supervision?

*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON,) Tower Hamlets, Poplar

My attention has not been called to the statement of Dr. Cecil Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, that Sir J. B. Thurston, Her Majesty's High Commissioner in the Western Pacific, had informed him, after a recent cruise amongst the islands, that he had been saddened throughout his journey by the evidences of the fearful depopulation resulting from the Queensland labour traffic, otherwise than through the newspaper extract which has been forwarded to me by the courtesy of my hon. Friend. Sir John Thurston has in recent despatches expressed the opinion that the labour traffic has tended to depopulate some of the islands. The Governor of Queensland has reported that the master and Government Agent of the William Manson have been committed for trial at Brisbane for kidnapping; but the official report of the trial has not yet been received. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific has arrived on leave, and it is intended to confer with him on this and other questions connected with the islands of the Pacific, but it is premature to discuss the question of addressing the Governor of Queensland in the sense suggested.