Coloured indentured labourers formed part of colonial society from the early settlement of Moreton Bay until the years after the Federation of the Australian colonies. These workers were specifically imported to meet the demands of a number of capitalists in order to ensure ready profits for their economic pursuits. But what sort of predicament was the coloured labourer to face during his temporary stay? What sort of work, conditions, and social life was he to experience in his allotted residence for a fixed number of years? What was his status - his place in colonial society? How was he to adapt to a totally alien environment? How was colonial society to accommodate him, when it had other plans for the young colony?
Contemporary sources presenting the landowner and capitalist's viewpoints may be found in abundance. Such evidence presents the indentured labourer as understood by a racist, colonialist society. The pastoralist or planter who employed them were usually educated, articulate people, whereas the coloured indent could rarely speak or write English. This factor, plus the nature of their bond placed the latter in a particularly vulnerable positions for those with power often wield it against powerless groups. The working class similarly presented a subjective view of the imported labourer, expressing this in many popular newspapers and magazines. However, the indentured labourer rarely had a chance to express the view he held of his own predicament. In this area of documentation there was thus an obtrusive gap.
Much valuable information may be extracted, from archival sources. Whilst we are once more confronted with the view of the government and other white colonialists (and these are also important) we may also detect a range of other opinions. These include, for example the evidence of policemen and officials whose duty it was to record the coloured labourer's predicament. Such information is most useful in arrival at a broader, more critical approach. Yet the relative "silence" of the people of when this topic is concerned does present considerable difficulties - ones which probably cannot be completely overcome.
An attempt has been made to come to terms with the ideas and social structure which tried to justify the system of indentured labour in colonial Queensland. Yet as Herbert Aptheker explains: Any social system, as a system, functions and hence contains within it "harmony", i.e. is viable. But the point is. Is its existence based upon invidious features, is it parasitic in character, antagonistic, filled with contradictions? Do these features reflect themselves in who benefits and who suffers under the system, who rebels and/or endures? Where lie the dynamics of the order, the seeds of change and of challenge?1
It is questions such as these to which I will now turn. 1. Herbert Aptheker , "Comment”, in Studies on the Left Vol. 6, No. 6, Nov.-Dec., 1966, p. 29.
A.N.U. Col. Off. Col. Sec. C.S.R..A. P.O. N.S.W. V. & P. O.M.L. Q.S.A. Q.V.P. Under Col. Sec. Australian National university. Colonial Office. Colonial Secretary. Colonial Sugar Refinery Archive. Foreign Office. New South Hales Votes and Proceedings. Oxley Memorial Library. Queensland State Archives. Queensland Votes and Proceedings. Under Colonial Secretary.
Chapter 1
The Coloured Servant: Economic Solutuion or Social Blight? The Quest for Labour and Racialist Responses
1. It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery, in the extreme acceptance of the word, without some risk of terminological inexactitude. Winston Churchill, 1906. Speech, House of Commons.
2.Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants? It is the creed of slaves. William Pitt, 1783.
"they really dislike the introduction of Asiatics for exactly the same reason which induced the more ignorant of the working classes in England to resist the introduction of machinery,...The rioters who maltreated the Chinese on the goldfields in 1861, were simply actuated by feelings similar to those ‘Luddites’ who burnt the new machinery of the Manufacturers in Nottinghamshire in 1811, " Governor George F. Duke of Newcastle, 5 September, 1862 Bowen to 4. "the Chinese, brought over in shoals, and reduced by a refined system of slavery, can actually be made the means of placing the whole control and government of the colony in the hands of a few planters, and of swamping struggling white men like myself who are working hard to advance by their own and their fellows' white labour the true interests of the colony. You must choose between Coolies and Chinese...ONE LOT IS INEVITABLE…The planters whose fortunes are at stake will not sit still," Queensland Figaro 12 May, 1883.
Part 1 The Quest for Labour
In 1861, Charles Nlcholson and a group of wealthy pastoralists and financiers petitioned Governor Bowen to permit the importation of Indian indentured labourers. They reasoned that by means of this "free" labour, ... a most powerful agency would be created for the abolition of slavery by the maintenance of which the supply of cotton to the British market la chiefly sustained.1 These gentlemen were here appealing to the prevalent British humanitarian feeling of the day, which strongly condemned slavery and upheld liberal institutions. The Indenture system was regarded as "free labour" because the servant had signed a contract and was (supposedly) recruited voluntarily. Yet the Paris Anti-Slavery Conference of 1867 concluded: It is proved that all the present systems of coolie immigration and contracts of labour, although regulated, may, and actually do, degenerate into new form of the slave trade and slavery.2 In fact, the African slave labourer had been initially introduced as merely a bond servant to North America, and his status had gradually developed into that of chattel.3 Joseph Burtt related to the First Universal Races Conference held at London in 1911, "indentured labour may lead to grave abuses, and become slavery in all but name". From the legal viewpoint, there were specific factors distinguishing slave labour from indentured labour. The slave was strictly the property of his employer, and had minimal legal right. As Eugen D. Genovese demonstrates, modern slavery theoretically emphasized the idea of a slave as instrumentium vocale - a chattel, a possession, a thing, a mare extension of the master's will. "Slavery rested on the principle of property in men, of one’s appropriation of another's person as wall as the fruits of his labour".6 The indentured labourer of Queensland, however, was never legally the property of his master, to be disposed of at the latter's will as real estate. Secondly, the slave was in the power of the master to which he belonged, and could be forcibly compelled by means of coercion or its threat.7 Whilst legally the bonded servant should not have been compelled to perform allocated tasks in this manner, force and compulsion ware frequently involved in the system, so that, empirically, the de facto distinction between contract and slave labour was not always clear. In Mauritius, planters acquired indentured coloured labour to fill the shortage caused by the abolition of slavery. They required this form of labour to fulfill the same economic function as slavery: to provide a continuous supply under the control of the master, which could be utilized whenever he demanded. Indigenous labourers did not meet the exigencies of the plantation economy because they occasionally left their jobs to tend to their own crops, and were thus considered unreliable. Likewise, the Australian Aborigines quickly tired of monotonous disciplined work accompanied by minimal rewards and drifted away from the plantations.8 Aborigines could leave this uncongenial labour successfully because they understood the environment and could subsist on it, and had a family/tribal support system which lone migrant labourer a did not have. In Northern New South Wales, which became Queensland in 1859, employers hoped indentured labour would provide similar advantages to convict labour, which had been their principle source until the 1840's. It has been convincingly argued that convictism was a variant of the slave mode of production. Michael Dunn defines it as a system where the non-labourers own both the forces of production (land and grain) and the labour power (convicts) in order to appropriate their part of the product. The convicts were united with forces of production - a unity which virtually chained them to their labour.9 The convicts’ period of productive slavery ended with the expiration of their prison sentences, so labourers were continually leaving the dominant mode of production.10 When transportation ceased, capitalists searched for a substitute which would be as manipulable and cheap as convict labour. Indentured labourers were predominantly males who ware imported to meet labour requirements in foreign countries. John Rex demonstrates that these labourers were forced to live in prison-like conditions, whilst their labour could be efficiently exploited by white masters, who were relieved of the unproductive units which blighted slavery (the young children, lactating and pregnant women).11 Schermerhorn asserts that the resemblances of bonded labour to slavery were more significant than to any other form of immigration. He explains contract labour runs the gamut from enforced servitude without chattel ownership to carefully stipulated intervals of work obligation terminated abruptly when contracts end.12 Convict and contract labour converged structurally because in both systems the worker’s liberty was denied by a dominant class for a fixed period, during which they would perform labour functions which free men generally refused. Both groups were dependent on their master for the necessities of life. They were also isolated from the wider community, and their predicament prevented them from any chance of social mobility. In the case of the indentured labourer, the whole system was weighted against social mobility, and even after the contract had expired, the device of repatriation was usually employed as the final control mechanism to prevent mobility. The convict was forced to work to provide retribution for a wrong-doing, while the contract labourer was indebted to a master as soon as he accepted a free passage to a foreign land. This obligated him to work for a fixed period performing tasks and withstanding whatever conditions the employer imposed. The employer class rationalised its control over the assigned convict because he or she had been convicted of crime. Racialist doctrines implying the immutable inferiority of coloured groups were utilized by masters to justify the frequent need for coercive measures to compel the indent to work. Such rationalisations served to substantiate the coloured labourer's subordinate position to the white master. Indents were a special category of highly unfree labour, and they were frequently treated with great callousness because their masters lacked the vested interests of proprietorial rights in perpetuity which were implicit in the system of slavery. Since the contract labourer was only engaged for a few years, he was viewed as replaceable and expendable. Until the 1880’s all wages due to deceased indents stayed in the pockets of his master, so it was not, necessarily, to the latter's benefit to care for such servants.13 The death-rate for Melanasians in colonial Queensland was inordinately high, and it was popularly claimed that they had been transported "to fertilize Queensland sugar plantations with their blood and their bones.”14 The Russian naturalist, Baron N. de Miklouho-Macklay argued in 1881 that a Melanesian was "a temporary slave for three years", who suffered overwork and deprivation with little medical assistance because his master "does not have the material interest to take care of [his] any longer than he has use for [him]."15 The same pattern applied to Indians, Malays, Javanese, Asiatics and others who were similarly indentured. The indentured labour system enabled the master to exploit his coloured servant to a far greater degree than he could ever hope to do to a free white citizen. The indent was in an especially vulnerable position because he was confronted with an alien environment, with an unfamiliar language as well as an unknown social and legal system. Furthermore, he was subject to stringent legal and social discrimination16 - employers themselves dominated colonial legislatures and racialism, in general, prevailed. Joseph Burtt reported at the 1911 London Races Conference: Let us clearly recognise that indentured labour has many inherent evils. It takes the native from his home, often separates him from his family for a long period, and tends to make him a landless unit, dependant on capital. It operates in remote regions between parties incredibly unequal - the happy-go-lucky black, and the determined white, armed with the modern gun and supported by experience, capital and a tradition of power.17 While Burtt had not escaped the widely-held racial stereotypes of the day, this sympathetic appraisal provides useful Insights into the predicament of the indentured labourer. The "tradition of power" of the colonial capitalist derived from notions of racial superiority over coloured races, the employer's ruling-position in the social hierarchy, and, in the Australian case, from the pattern of authoritarianism implicit in the convict system. Yet the system of indenture, however, functioned within the overall context of ‘free’ white labour, amidst popular aspirations for liberal institutions. The urban working-class and the bourgeois dwellers were totally opposed to coloured labour, and the presence of non-whites within the community, as they desired a colony dedicated to British institutions and democracy. Since these critics of indenture were contained in the same boundaries of the community providing for categories of unfree and free labour, their opposition proved effective, especially when voiced through the liberal, and later Labor political groups. Their criticisms of contract labour not only served as a control mechanism, but eventually ousted the system completely. The following discussion will explore labour demands and supply, with special reference, to Moreton Bay and the districts which formed Queensland after 1859, in an attempt to depict the social and economic environment which for a time accommodated the system of indentured labour. Early N.S.W. and Labour T. A. Coghlan points out that the demand for labour in New South Wales was intense throughout the 1820’s8 and 1830’s. In earlier years financial difficulties of settlement had interfered with this demand and bad seasons caused restricted employment.19 The most constant need was for pastoral shepherds. Many were drawn from the convict class, but numbers were insufficient, and other classes of labour had to be tried. Working-class immigrants first came in appreciable numbers in 1832, the government assisting them to pay their passages. By 1820, only 1,941 free immigrants had come, and whilst this scheme increased numbers greatly, it did not entirely alleviate the problem. Most free workers preferred the towns, which intensified the rural shortages felt in the expanding pastoral industry. Shepherding was a hard and lonely job, very monotonous and with low status. Neither the emancipist nor the free settler were willing to provide the regular source of labour required, so after 1840. when transportation into New South Wales formally ended, landowners ware faced with a crucial labour problem. Aborigines were recruited as cheap labour for pastoralists; Coghlan argued that they made excellent stockmen, but with the extension of the industry, "a.higher class of worker, men used to the tending of flocks, became urgent." It was a frequent phenomenon in British and other colonies for employers to be dissatisfied with indigenous labour, and look further afield for "sufficient and reliable" supplier. Pastoralists and plantation owners in South East Asia, the Pacific and Africa found it more economically rewarding to ship in foreign workers (at first slaves, and later indents), than use the Indigenes. Aboriginal culture was not inured to maximized, regulated and disciplined labour for very minimal rewards, so the work they were required to perform was logically a most unpleasant alternative to their traditional and far more meaningful cultural pursuits. Since there were so few white women on remote properties, and because the European saw fit to seize women from the tribes of the "inferior" Aborigines in much the same way as they had expropriated their land, sexual exploitation of native women was a widespread pattern. Conflicts thus ensued between white and black, causing some station-owners to dismiss their native servants for this reason. A further reason why foreign indents were preferred to Aborigines was that the former were dependent on white capital, whereas the latter could usually fend for themselves off the land unless already dispossessed. Employers hired servants privately from Great Britain In an attempt to fill the labour gap under conditions of wage and work which they could stipulate, they paid for the conveyance of these men and woman to Australia and usually hired then under a contract of indenture for two to five years. Man such as Patrick Leslie privately arranged to indenture them with the aid of their English connections. This method was generally declared a failure, however, for what often happened was that the men who hired themselves in Great Britain accepted wages which appeared lucrative compared with British rates, but when they arrived in Australia, they found the cost of living higher and that they were being paid wall below the accepted ruling rates. They felt they had been subjected to unfair treatment, and refused to complete their indentures, assured of a job elsewhere in the highly competitive labour market. Thus "free" white indents proved an unprofitable venture to the employer who had paid their passages. Furthermore, they would not have tolerated the same coercion from, or extreme subservience towards a master, as had been forced upon the convict. John Dunmore Lang, a prominent Protestant Minister, believed the system failed because masters did not know the religion and character of their future employees. He also admitted that they were being paid much lower rates than could otherwise be obtained: ... this created a spirit of discontent on the part of the servants and held out to them a strong temptation to break their engagements.23 Lang's immigration schemes involved the conveyance with government aid "of the virtuous and humbler classes of Great Britain, and northern Ireland"24 to Australia. He recommended that Britain’s own poor might benefit by such assisted immigration. In 1835, the New South Wales government declared that the number of married agricultural immigrants should not exceed two hundred per year. Time the labour market was In fact limited.26 A great demand for labour actually continued, but it was an agitation for cheap labour, to fill occupations disliked, and generally regarded as inferior, by free labourers. The example of other colonial settlements in tropical areas to meet such demands contributed to a cry for Asian labour. Pastoralists experimented with coolies from China, India and the South Pacific. A Select Committee of the N.S.W. legislative Council in 1837 had recommended importing Indiana for shepherding and tropical cultivation in the North, but this did not result In any government action. In 1840, the Immigration Report said that the type of persons required were house servants, shepherds, agricultural labourers, ploughmen and mechanics. The proposed Indians were intended to counter the scarcity of each labour, but also to avoid payment of the current 25 pounds per annum being paid to agricultural labourers and shepherds, which was considered exhorbitant.27 The acting Colonial Treasurer, P. L. Campbell, claimed that 20,000 immigrants per year for some time to come were necessary to relieve the great scarcity of labour felt after the cessation of the convict assignment system. He explained the growing dislike on the part of British emigrants to become shepherds, and suggested immediate permission to introduce a certain and limited number of Indian coolies. He also called for a bounty for German settlers and winegrowers. Campbell attributed unstable land prices and other symptoms of an insecure economy to the scarceness and expansiveness of labour.28 He lamented that: … although we have had the finest seasons ever known, no real value is to be affixed to anything and the Colony may be said to be commencing a retrograde movement, solely from the want of labour.29 A Select Committee of 1841 rejected any government assistance to introduce Chinese labour, but put no obstacles in the way of private employers doing so at their own expense. Further suggestions from landed proprietors in 1843 resulted in little advancement. The Indian Emigration Act of 1839 had prevented coolie emigration, except to countries to which they had granted special permission, and whose governments would guarantee compliance with stringent regulations for the protection of the emigrants. The 1840’s depression served to curb assisted immigration for several years, so that employers turned to importing Chinese, using their own capital to do so. Several thousand Chinese coolies arrived at Sydney and Port Phillip, as well as Moreton Bay after 1848, at their employer's expense. Pastoralists continued to request Government aid for their ventures, while white workers, many whom were unemployed in the cities, alleged that demands for labour were merely a pretext to flood the colony with cheap labourers. In order to force wage rates down.30 Morton Bay and Queensland The Moreton Bay district, which remained part of New South Wales until 1859, experienced a similar labour predicament. It had functioned as a detention centre or recalcitrant convicts from other parts of New South Wales, and thus, as Saunders notes, "the regime of the goal, was, by necessity, extremely violent and authoritarian.31 While settlement officially ceased to serve as a penal establishment in 1839 some convicts actually remained until January 1846. Ex-convicts and tlcket-of-leave men again functioned as the first cheap labour force. Convicts were not assigned to private settlers from the penal settlement at Moreton Bay, although some assigned convicts were procured from Newcastle and Sydney. Patrick Leslie provided an illuminating explanation of the economic advantages of this form of labour, when he wrote to his parents: you are not required to give wages but you must keep them [the convicts] in good humour by giving them allowances of money now and then accordingly as they behave.33 The employer had to clothe and feed them, but their food was simply beef and flour one day, then flour and beef the next which they had to cook and prepare for themselves.34 John Everett, a squatter of New England, complained that theprisoners who cared for his sheep required a great deal of looking after, and were "a race in whom you can place little or no confidence". However, being so "irresponsible as wrong-doers , it was considered quite legal and customary for the squatter, who considered himself a "responsible man", to curb the alleged inefficiency and Insolence of his convicts and ticket-of-leave-men by whatever coercion was deemed necessary. This could not be done so easily with-the free labourer, who possessed greater mobility. While employers frequently complained about the quality of the convict's work it was generally admitted that a "government man" was a tractable, cheap and fairly reliable servant. The advantages of this variant of "slave labour" by far outweighed the disadvantages in the eyes of the master. After transportation had ceased, convict numbers dwindled and a labour shortage arose. Free immigrants were scarce inthe early days of the Moreton Bay "free" settlement, and at any rate expansive. According to the Moreton Bay Courier of 1846, settlers were arriving and : It is of the very last importance that we should have an adequate supply of labour ... An effort must be made to procure labour and that without delay.36 Colonial enterprise involved not only the capture of land and other physical resources, but also the compulsion of indigines who had been expelled from the land to work for the new proprietor. In the early days of frontier settlements, Aborigines were considered a dangerous threat by white settlers, and recent studios have proven that Aboriginal resistance was more effective and widespread than previously imagined. On H. Corfield's Gigoomgan(sic) run blacks killed a shepherd, stole 2,000 wethers and drove them over almost inaccessible country known as the Tye Mountains. Before his white neighbours regained the sheep, the Aborigines had allegedly killed sixty of them every day for their evening meal.39 Some years later, however, Corfield reported in his Journal that the blacks were grinding his corn and “bailing" the cattle "as per usual". He made no complaint about their behaviour.40 These natives had been forced Into subservience and could no longer effectively resist white culture. As Raymond Evans notes, the process of frontier violence could itself induce such submission.41 He provides a farther example: the native tribes around Cressbrook had had lands expropriated from them during the 1840’s and 50's so David McConnel and his neighbours joined forces for "protection" and also to mete out "punishment" to Aborigines resisting white settlement.42 were left after the violent conflicts that ensued, reportedly "came to,...realise the value of good conduct". As the McConnel brothers were "convinced disciplinarians...they agreed with Solomon as to the use of the rod." 43 Nugent Wade Brown similarly approved of coercive Measures in order to utilise the Aborigines as a labour force. "I was anxious to get a young black boy", he recorded in Memories of a Queensland fiflnifl" so he chose one, then, he explained, I rode quickly after him, stooped and caught him toy a strap around his waist which was his only garment, pulled him onto the horse and rode away. Kindness, plenty of good food and clothes soon made him a happy little nigger and he remained with me for years.44 Aborigines were infrequently attracted to the type of work a white pastoralist required. They had their own lifestyle, and as long as their territories had not been confiscated, this proved far sore amenable than the life of subservience offered to the European employer. Mary McConnel, wife of David McConnel, used Aboriginal women and children as supplementary house helpers, although she was unable to understand their preference for tribal life. She tried to "civilise" then by separating the children from their mothers, giving then their own rooms and cosy beds, teaching than hymns and verses in an attempt to christianise than and encourage then into submitting to white culture; but, she lamented, "I could not wean than off going to the camp at night to sleep by the campfire." She hoped, however, that they would eventually be "tamed" and moulded into good workers, asserting:- I think the natives are much maligned. A generation or two of wise, kind treatment would make a great change in them, but there were many hindrances, and the tribes would need to be broken up.45 Governor Grey proudly claimed at a Legislative Council meeting of the mid~iB40's that ha had a native girl in his household who was "not only civilized, but as Christianized as any person in the colony." This girl, Nigarparta was also in the employ of Governor Gawler, but much to the dismay of both employers, she threw away her English servant's clothing and eloped with an Aborigine called "Jemmy" when she reached womanhood.' Mary McConnel's Aboriginal servants often loft her generously maternalistic treatment in favour of nomadic excursions with their tribes,47 a farther hindrance to using them as a "reliable-source of labour. Among other incentives, Aboriginal Reserve settlements outside Mackay, Brisbane, Bowen, Townsville and Cooktown from the mid-1870's onwards* warn calculated to provide a local cheap labour reservoir. When Government Reserves worn established after 1897, this precedent was followed, but little success was achieved in extracting a work output from the Aborigines which proved advantageous to the white community.48 One of the main experiments was at Mackay in the 1870’s, where the G. F. Brldgman Aboriginal Reserve was used as a labour pool for local plantation owners, supplying of men to perform the most menial tasks.49 Whilst the natives might work for short periods with some enthusiasm, planters found that they could not rely on them, as they soon drifted away to resume a tribal life-style which offered more satisfying rewards. They were thus labeled as "inherently lazy", although for a full day's exertion, the black worker was paid only a meal or a stick of tobacco, and frequently even less. As Father Duncan McNab argued in the 1870's, To expect men who have lived by the chase voluntarily to submit to slavery, or to a life of constant toil and hard labor is folly....51 Like all men they are unwilling to labor if they can do without it or are inadequately compensated.52 Due to the recent background of racial conflict. Aborigines were regarded as expendable and treacherous by their white master, and consequently treated with extreme cruelty. This factor provided an additional incentive for natives to leave their employment and since they could subsist off the land, could leave such situations effectively. Thus, for the reasons discussed above, the Aborigines did not meet employers' demands, as a dependable and reliable labour supply. Furthermore, for the requirements of large-scale plantations, their numbers were inadequate. The Moreton Bay Courier of 1846 explained that New Zealand and van Dieman's Land were considered the two great reservoirs from which an adequate supply of labour might be obtained. Labour from these colonies cost £4 and £2 respectively to import.54 It was believed that the labouring population of England were fully employed in building the British railways and those assisted immigrants who cane wore shipped directly to Sydney and snatched up by southerners. Squatters feared an Increase in wages unless more money was subscribed for labourers, and the Moreton Bav Courier called for squatters to combine to procure the necessary source of labour. In 1846, the census for the County of Stanley contained out of 1,599 white inhabitants only 123 ticket of leave men, one ticket of leave female, and seven in private assignment. Thus a very small proportion of ex-convict labourers were available. Pastoralists proclaimed their enthusiasm for a colony of "exiles", or prisoners who preferred colonial deportation to British incarceration in some district to the north of Moreton Bay. Exiles had been received at tort Phillip in November 1844 employers were very enthusiastic and hired them direct from the ships, which infuriated the Melbourne workers.56 The Moreton Bay Courier excitedly acclaimed the attractiveness of these ex-convicts: The exiles, since their sojourn at Port Phillip, as a body have distinguished themselves for morality and good behaviour, and from the knowledge of the mechanical arts imparted to them at the Penitentiary, have proven very useful in all kinds of labour requiring the exercise of ingenuity.57 They did not prove entirely successful at Port Phillip, as they refused to be confined to assigned service, and many preferred to stay in Melbourne or Geelong.58 Nevertheless, employers had rushed their Brisbane agents with orders far this kind of labour. The exiles' arrival, however, was followed by riotous behaviour, which the meagre police force was powerless to control, and their later working behaviour was considered unsatisfactory.59 Between May 1849 and April 1850, a significant number (between 500 to 1,000) ware introduced but large employers of the district asked their agents not to get "any more such men." 60 Yet in 1852, Leslie, who claimed to represent many northern squatters was still demanding them. Calling himself "a plain practical squatter", Leslie asserted that: ... a very large proportion of northern squatters do not desire separation from the middle district, unless accompanied by exiles and a consequent government expenditure.61 In the same latter ha strongly disapproved of Lang's immigration ideals, implying that they had nothing to do with the needs of squatters. Robert Ramsay stated in May 1852 that there were already 1,200 exiles and Chinamen in charge of sheep in the Moreton Ray vicinity. Gordon Sandeman told the Select Committee on Asiatic Labour of 1854 that the great scarcity of labour prompted the strong feeling in favour of importing exiles. He failed to refute the claim that such a demand originated from a desire to have a class Of shepherds more under the employer's control than wage labourers would be.63 The argument used by capitalists was one of necessity and exigency but this undoubtedly masked underlying motives such as the desire for a more subordinate, easily manipulated source of labour. An editorial in the Moreton Bay Courier argued: Cheap and abundant labour is an essential adjunct of our prosperity, and the instinct of self- preservation must urge, as It has already urged us, to avail ourselves of it, wherever it can be obtained.64 Squatters’ arguments similarly emphasized themes of "irresistible laws of necessity" and "the effect of practical good sense"65 in their attempts to rationalize their quest. The profit motive caused them to elevate economic necessity to an almost religious level of fervid intent which superceded other social ideals. White workers and the urban bourgeoisie, however, were later to uphold social and moral values diametrically opposed to the squatters’ economic arguments. In October, 1846, attempts were made to revive transportation as a source of cheap and abundant labour. It was proposed that this would be strictly controlled, with private assignment of convicts as hitherto, the home government engaging the convicts at its own expense for two years. W. C. Wentworth and several other members of the legislative Assembly backed the renewal of transportation, and favoured assignment to remote areas beyond the boundaries of location. 66 This proposal immediately aroused the anger of the Brisbane workers. Since members of the "squattocracy" dominated government life and possessed influential ties In Britain, they were in an extremely advantageous position to wield power. In order to pacify the anti-Transportationists, they made public assurances that they had been forced to advocate the re-Introduction of this source only because free labour was not available as required, and tried to convince the public that the presence of numerous convicts would not be detrimental to the moral climate of colonial society. The plea for transportation was finally abandoned, however, due to the strong opposition of the townsfolk, and became it would hinder the granting of responsible government to the northern settlement. The use of convict labour in the early period had sot s precedent - when hopes of its revival subsided, it left a gap like the abolition of slavery had left in other colonial economies. Some squatters hoped that the starving vagabonds and paupers from England might serve as labour.68 The introduction of such unfortunates was used as a premise in emotional anti-coolie arguments from various groups. A gentleman who had been an indigo planter in India proposed the introduction of labourers from this country, because, he argued, only coloured men would descend into the fermentation vats and stir up the stuff when immersed up to their necks; white men would look too offensively blue after the process. Lang disagreed, asserting that there were “thousands and tens of thousands of our industrious countryman" in Britain who would be dyed any colour of the rainbow to earn some sort of honest living. 69 In 1862, public meetings at Ipswich and Brisbane argued that employers of coloured labour should be condemned to roofless attics and three months' imprisonment for their “crime” in failing to help England's starving thousands.70 Employers were in fact eager to engage paupers but at England's expense: Nobler, a southern squatter wrote that it deplored that the home government won't send us some of the starving thousands.”71 Sir Charles Nicholson suggested that boys and girls from poor houses and ragged schools could be introduced as labour,72 rather than remain an expense to the home government. Colin Archer also approved this scheme73 as did Claudius Whish,74 but no collective attempts were made to contribute funds for their importation. Britain undoubtedly hesitated because of possible humanitarian outcries from those opposed to juvenile labour. Gordon Sandeman had, however, imported eleven boys apprenticed to him from the orphans Asylum, Calcutta.75 Unfortunately, they were in an even more powerless position that the "coolies" in voicing their complaints, and nothing more was heard of them. Assisted immigration to northern areas failed to meet requirements. Apparently Moreton Bay received far fewer immigrants than required. Assisted immigrants ware shipped direct to Sydney, where they were quickly signed up by southern employers. Only a comparative trickle found its way north, so Moreton Bay squatters combined with those from other northern settlements to demand direct immigration. The petitioners were entitled to more than 1,500 immigrants, they claimed, but none had been received. They demanded that a quarter of the funds raised by debentures for emigration purposes should have been spent on the northern area. Settlers complained that there was never a sufficient number of domestics in the district - in fifteen months they had received only thirty-five unmarried women.77 Squatters claimed that most of the immigrants received were encumbered by a wife and family, and the high cost of their maintenance and conveyance made them an unprofitable venture. Usually those migrants were loath to go to remote areas in any case, and thus did not serve to alleviate the shortage of shepherds, or hut keepers. Attempts made by Hodgson and Leslie in England resulted in a steadier flow of migrants direct to Moreton Bay by 1856. Through their aristocratic connections, those two men waged to get Sir John Paklngton, Earl Grey's successor, to double the number of emigrant ships to Moreton Bay.79 This was still an expensive form of labour, and the period of engagement was limited. Bandsman asserted that those reasons and Chinese labour appear more lucrative.80 In 1854, he agreed that people of the north had been forced to pay far more attention to Immigration than those of any other part of the colony. They had tried to obtain every description of labour, and had perhaps directed more effort into this guest than all the other districts put together.81 Thus two problems were becoming paramount to Queensland in the years following Separation. These were the critical lack of a labour supply which would meet employer's demands and the need to expand and rationalise an economy which was bound, almost exclusively, to the pastoral industry. An adequate solution to each had to be found before the orderly economic development of the colony could proceed. It was apparent that Queensland could not depend entirely on one product, and since large expanses of her territories lay within tropical or sub-tropical belts, the cultivation of sugar and cotton provided possibilities for swift development of proposed cotton and sugar companies, Hobbes argued that such would encourage the Introduction of foreign capital, and thus "lay the foundation of Queensland's prosperity on a more safe and permanent basis than the discovery of the richest goldfield.”83 Capital and cheap labour were thus the principle commodities necessary to fulfill the need for economic expansion. Overseas capital was expected to flow in when an adequate supply of suitable labour could fill the need for field hands in tropical agriculture, for which, like shepherding, the white worker showed distinct distaste. As early as 1853, George Leslie expressed his interest in cotton cultivation and hoped to have the Coolie Emigration Restriction withdrawn by the East India Company.84 He was optimistic about his personal labour requirements as he asserted: I am not at all afraid of labour - Tom is sending me Chinese and all hands are sending to India for Coolies as the Indian Government are agreeable to withdraw the restriction.85 The I860 Select Committee to Enquire into Immigration recommended that neither Indian, Chinese Coolies nor German immigrants be imported at the cost of the government, but that no restriction should be thrown in the way of parties desirous of procuring such a description of labour at their own expense, and under proper government supervision. William Hobbes spoke of the success of cotton grown in Queensland so far, but he disagreed with the Importation of Chinese and Indian Labourers because of the "peculiar aversion with which Britons regard the degrade races.87 Since pastoralists later joined by the planters, comprised the dominant class in colonial society, the qualms of the small urban bourgeoisie, represented by man like Dr. Hobbs, were overlooked. Hopes of successfully competing with American cotton due to the disruption caused by the American Civil War to her raw cotton exports, led to a feeling of real urgency in rural capitalists' demands for cheap and abundant coloured labour.88 They realized that larger tracts of land than could be utilised by a small farmer ware essential to successful competition, and thus the turn to plantations proceeded rapidly. The estate system depended on large supplies of labourers to perform menial tasks, so the newly expanded economy exaggerated the need for a steady supply of the type of labour which would meet the capitalists' requirements. Planters and squatters clearly demanded a labour force which satisfied four distinct social and economic criteria - that it was cheap, coloured, reliable and servile.89 Before discussing the process of selection and experimentation with the various ethnic groups, the principal arguments of employers, which centred around these criteria, will be briefly observed. As in the 1840's and 50's, the high cost of white labour was one of the employers' principal considerations, and the expansion to large-scale agricultural Industries emphasised this problem. In I860, Colin Archer, a squatter of the Port Curtis district, argued that white labour was too expensive and consequently cotton, sugar and other tropical products could not be grown profitably. He believed that "coolies” alone would remedy this problem. James Taylor agreed that wages for all types of rural work were prohibitively high, and having like Archer, previously employed Chinese labour, recommended its future use in the colony's agricultural pursuits.91 In 1865, R.G.W. Herbert, then the Premier of Queensland, awaited a supply of "Malays and other black labour” in order to "reduce the working expense" of his property.92 Planters later argued that without coloured labour, the sugar industry could never hope to compete with Mauritius, Java, or China where wages were frequently as low as sixpence per day compared with the Queensland rate of sixteen shillings per day for white labour.93 Fineh-Hatton testified that planters were absolutely dependent for their existence upon being able to obtain a sufficient supply of coloured labour to do their work. It has been conclusively proved that if white labour was available, it would be at wages which the planter could never afford to pay.94 The Queenslander of 1877 attributed a fall in capital investment to instability in the coloured labour market.95 A slump in world sugar prices during the 1880's, combined with the increasing difficulties and expense of procuring cheap South Sea Island labour, which had been the principle source up to this time, intensified the planters' desperate pleas for the palliative of cheap labour. The Royal Commission into the Sugar, Industry of 1889 gave voice to the sense of urgency felt by the planters: capitalists refused to lend money, they argued, because the former saw "no future prospects" for the industry, "without cheap coloured labour.96 Employers additionally argued that coloured labour was essential due to Queensland's. climate. Charles Nicholson stated at the 1860 Select Committee to Enquire into Immigration- "I do not believe that the Anglo-Saxon race can work at field labour under tha tropical sun."97 A petition from land stockholders, merchants and other interested parties from the Maryborough district in July, 1861, echoed this view that a "race habituated" to a tropical climate was essential to them.98 A submission from Mackay in 1885, signed by M. Hume Black, M.L.A., supported the same opinion, asserting that, for a white worker long continued exposure during field-work to a tropical summer sun...eventually ends in their premature decay and physical wreck, even when not hastened by the use of stimulants taken perhaps with the object of maintaining vital energy.99 In contrast, J. D. Lang had previously assured the Editor of the Economist that cotton and sugar could be grown "with perfect facility and safety by a European population," and that the climate was not only "perfectly congenial to the Constitution of the European field labourers" but of "unsurpassed salubrity."100 Nevertheless, belief in its deteriorating effects to the white worker prevailed. For instance, George Bashford, a politician who had opposed coloured labour before winning his seat, changed his views when his company received a railway contract at the northern Mourilyan plantation. He asserted that white man could not perform the work required in railway undertakings in the summer heat, and cited figures from a week in January when a total of fifty percent of working hours were lost supposedly due to the frequent illness of European labourers. Bashford depicted the white labourers as: men walking about the semblance of living ghosts, calling upon God to deliver them from their sufferings, and man light-headed and half-delirious with fever, leaving in numbers for the Townsville Hospital.101 Henry Kirke maintained that he had been informed "on the best authority" that white men could not, "with due regard to their health", work in underground mines. Employers thus concluded that Asiatics and Melanesians were the "only fit form of labour" for uncomfortable, hot or unhealthy conditions.103 T. A. Coghlan argued that the heat of the climate was merely an "ostensible reason" for the importation of coloured labour, and that the more potent reasons ware the same ones which had made convict labour attractive: numbers of men, unencumbered by families, and the prospect of paying low wages, and ensuring lengthy terms of service.104 Furthermore, non-Europeans were regarded as an eminently more reliable labour form. As early as the 1840's, the Moreton Bay Courier had stereotyped the "free" white labourers while propounding the virtue of coloured Indents. Of the former, it explained: instead of performing their duties better, as they ought to when they are highly renumerated, we find them careless and insolent - idle and knowish, bolting from the stations in every direction.105 In 1877, The Queenslander asserted that European labour was not only costly, inefficient and unsuited to the climate, but "restless” and "discontented". It further commented: They will not settle down to steady work at good wages, but after trying the goldfields...take what they can got for a time, and give as little work for their wages as they possibly can.106 By the 1870’s, few European labourers wished to bind themselves for long periods under the Masters and Servants Act, whereas coloured workers could be indented for three to five years. Claudius Whish had underlined the "reliable" nature of the latter when he reported to the 1869 Select Committee on "Polynesians" that "the chief element of thelr value consists in your being sure of their residence with you for a certain time.107 Likewise, the Queensland Figaro of 1884 noted at the time that the "coolie" frequently cost £25 to import, whereas certain -white races could be procured at a mere £2. The newspaper thus concluded, It is not a question of sentiment with the sugar planters. It is a pure question of business...It is not a question of cheapness of importation, it is a question of reliability of labour.108 The Bundaberg Mail of 1894 reiterated this argument: It is the unreliability of white labour which is the cause of black labour being here...failing to find reliable labour among white [men] ... [employers] seek to find it among black.109 Employers also required a servile labour force. Coloured indents, divorced from social ties and rendered virtually powerless within the white community might fulfill this specification, whereas Europeans may have been "discontented" workers, coloured labourers were depleted as extremely docile, contented and even cheerful workers. John Spiller, the prominent Mackay sugar-grower who owned Pioneer Plantation, said of the Melanesians, "Not only do they do their work well, but they are contented..."110 James Hope confirmed that they worked "at any hour with great cheerfulness", 111 whilst Ward, the editor of the Brisbane Courier in 1895, argued that he
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witness. Once the indentured labourer had accepted an advance, often encouraged to do so by his lodging-house keeper, (who would witness the contract), this amount would be extorted from him. The crimp would demand it back for lodging services provided, charging more than was due, and thus making a remunerative business out of inducing coloured boarders to bind themselves. John Douglas, the Government Resident on Thursday Island, thus observed that "a loose state of affairs" had arisen, "much to the advantage of the lodging-house crimps and by no means to the advantage of the men themselves."132 Chester explained coloured men often signed articles in the crimp's presence, and "without knowing what they are doing, discover that they have bound themselves to serve for three years."133 The Shipping Master in Sydney pointed out that he had no legal authority to make indents come before him, so he did not have the opportunity of ascertaining whether they understand the agreement or not.134 The inevitable station-store provided a further means for the master to expropriate money from his indents. Whilst Friell claimed that his Indian labourers saved four-fifths of their wage, and spent the remainder at the Station store,135 it appears that most coloured labourers could have accummulated only minimal savings. Most of the Chinese shepherds employed at Boondooma were forced to spend their earnings at the station store, on relatively unnecessary commodities which ware not supplied. These included cabbage-tree hats, (they cost 4s), articles of clothing, pickles, pepper and sweets. These items 131 missing The payment of wages to indentured labourers was one of the most outstanding legal factors differentiating this system from the slave system. A wage Is a potential means to social mobility, yet as can be seen from the above evidence, wages were very low, and little of this money ever reached the labourer's pocket. In fact, debts incurred to the master often bound the servant for longer periods of time. Insufficient food and clothing supplies forced many indents to use much of their earnings on essential commodities. Jobs were so tedious and life so restricted and deprived that excess wages were frequently spent on "drink and debauchery.”40 Shock reactions were expressed by popular newspapers when coloured labourers were found with any money in their pockets or any bank savings: it was generally assumed they could not possibly have any excess money.141 The upper stratum used such instances as a rationale to prove that labourers did not fare badly at all. Diet The diet of an indentured labourer depended almost entirely on rations supplied to him by his master. These varied according to the location of his employment, and consequent availability of foodstuffs. Many contracts were extremely vague on the subject of rations that would be provided, so quantity and" quality distributed were dependent upon the individual masters discretion. In 1853, George Leslie had offered an indentured Englishman a high wage and two bedroom house, and for rations: 21be sugar, 8 lbs flour, 12 lbs meat, 4 oz tea per week.142 Sandeman claimed similar amounts were typical, but with 14 lbs of meat for a white labourer.143 Typical rations allotted to a Chinese indent in the 1840's and 1850's were 8 lbs flour, 91bs meat, and 2 oz tea per week -considerably lower proportions. Sing Wu-Wang notes that there were major discrepancies between Chinese and English translations of typical contracts. On the Chinese version of a popular contract, sugar was included (1 lb), and a choice of either flour or rice was allowed. The Chinese version had stipulated 10 lbs rice, and only 8 lbs meat; it had implied unlimited amounts of tea, the English version confined this to 2 oz.144 The English version was used if legal queries arose, and there were few interpreters in tha Moreton Bay colony, even in Court to prove discrepancies in the contracts existed. Chinese would have preferred rice instead of flour as it was their customary diet, and would not have objected to less meat, but they drank large quantities of tea, and this meagre allowance would have been objectionable. It appears that in this case, stipulated rations had intentionally been altered to dupe the coloured labourer. Such vagueness and obvious discrepancies in contracts were not infrequent, and often caused the indents to feel they had been deceived. Serious nutritional deficiencies were experienced on the ships transporting labourers, due to bad provisions and the want of water".345 Many were in a "sad state of scurvy"146on arrival. This disease is caused by a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the diet. Maltreatment arising from the shipper's desire to cut costs, and pure negligence were the cause of such outbreaks." When coloured immigrants reached the colony, little consideration was given to providing food to which they had previously been accustomed. Eurasians who usually lived on curry and rice were given "bread and meat when they worked in Australia.148 Captain Hainan, who transported the group reasoned that "they would prefer it to their original mode of living."149 : a rationale similarly applied to justify the poor quality of food which these people from "starving countries" were expected to think luxurious. If the coloured labourer expressed distaste for such food he was generally ignored. Cultural preferences were labeled "caste fads” and looked upon with annoyance. The Australian ethnocentrically labeled the Indian as a "poor slender half-built man, made out of rice and dholl".150 P.Friell, who claimed a broad understanding of Indian culture, had actually recommended a diet which Indians would accept. This consisted of 7 lbs rice or flour, 1/4 lb dholl, 1/4 lb onions, ½ lb salt, 1/4 lb tumeric or curry powder, 1/4 lb chillies, and 1/4 lb mustard oil per week. He added the proviso that if such articles could not be "readily procured" they should be substituted by Beef or mutton 7lbs Floor or rice 7lbs Maize meal, or vegetables equiv. thereto 2lbs Salt ½ lb Although he was regularly in contact with India and could have acquired Indian food articles, he resorted to the substitutes. Friell claimed to understand their culture, yet he overlooked a fundamental religious law of the Hindu: that it was considered highly unethical to eat the flesh of their sacred animal, the cow. His Indians stated their grievances respecting rations to the Police Magistrate, but their white overseer, Scrougall at Tent Hill station merely responded that the labourers were "regularly supplied".151 Subsequently the Indians were back to their station with no changes made. Employers frequently ignored the food preferences of other races; when the indentured labourers protested, they were commonly sent to goal. The word of the master was believed in favour of theirs. Dr Stephen Simpson, Commissioner of Crown Lands* reported that Friell's labourers had not been paid, and rations were deficient: "I was much struck with their altered appearance, which, for whatever cause, bore the stamp of starvation and misery". He gave them rations from his station's supply, explaining that Friell had "very humanely offered them beef instead of mutton, well knowing the Hindoo's horror of eating his God!"152 Wentworth had refused to provide rice and dhall (which was stipulated in his contract) to his labourers allegedly because these items were too expensive. He supplied only meat and flour, although the Indians concerned were Brahmins and meat would make them ritually unclean.153 Wentworth refused to nullify the agreement, and the Indians hadt o serve one week in prison, pay court costs from their wages, and continue to eat meat.154 Malays of the Bloomfield River plantation had complained that their feed was insufficient. Between 47 men, their rations were: 40 lbs beef, 30 Ibs flour, 56 lbs rice, 10 lbs sugar, 1 lb tea, and 1 “bol" curry weekly. The manager stated that vegetables had previously been distributed occasionally, but blamed a drought for their absence from the diet, 155 Millman thus concluded that the complaints of the men were groundless as their food was abundant. 156 However, he admitted that the "absence of the food these men had previously been accustomed to...principally...ghee and dholl”157 was a principal source of discontent. A Cooktown agent supplied such goods from Singapore, 158 but apparently this matter was not one of the manager's priorities, and he had failed to place an order. There was further cultural differentiation between the Malays which employers failed to take into account. Kllman excused the masters insouciance because: The nationalities being so many and so different also rendered them a difficult lot of men to deal with as the food that was acceptable to one lot would not be taken by the other.159 Besides cultural and religious considerations, nutritional authorities of the present day have pointed out that, while the digestive system may be an adaptable organism, it takes some time before the body adjusts to a complete change of diet. For example, if people on a diet emphasizing legumes (such as "dholl" or lentils), suddenly change over to a high cereal diet, they are unable to absorb and utilise such essential minerals .... as calcium for several weeks.160 An intake of light, easily digestible "dholl” or other curried food would have been more practical in a tropical climate than quantities of neat. Combined with the physical strain of adapting to a complete change of diet, indentured labourers were forced to simultaneously perform strenuous work to which they were unaccustomed. An "old Northerner" noted in the Queenslander that "the heavy diet of the European in the tropics makes him more unsuited..the light wholesome diet and absteniousness of Chinese" made them more adapted to tropical agriculture.161 The British had introduced their diet patterns as well as their heavy clothing from a relatively cold climate, and along with many other elements of Anglo-Saxon culture, saw fit to impose them on the diverse cultures imported as indentured labourers. Thus food preferences were labeled as "unjustifiable grievances” Louis Hope's Cingalese were allotted each day "800 gram rice, 100 gram fish or salted meat or green vegetables, 10 gram salt". 162 In contrast, the British Indian Government had recommended a balanced diet, consisting of bread or flour, fish, ghee or oil, dhall, potatoes (or rice or maize meal) and salt in generous proportions.163 Indian Government authorities were keen to protect its emigrants, being aware that poor rations contributed to the death end disease of many overseas labourers. The diet recommended by the British Consul at Batavia was "rice and fresh or dried neat, or fish, and salt".164 This was incorporated into Mourilyan Sugar Company's contracts, but left extremely vague with no stipulation of quantities, (although non-working Javanese woven could receive rations free). Numerous other contracts were equally vague in respect to labourers to be recruited by S. Hoffnung and company, what was referred to as “dietary scale" was merely a list stating "Rice, Meat, flour, Tea, Sugar weekly".165 A contract used for Malays in 1886 merely stated: "the said employer shall provide the labourers with their daily food",166 thus the type of food, and the quality, was entirely dependent on the Master's discretion. - By the 1890's, however, agreements between Bowden Brothers and Company and the Japanese labourers stipulated set quantities of food, and allowed for a transition period where the indents were entitled to Japanese foodstuffs. Employers must have realized the detrimental effects of a sudden change of diet. Thus for the initial six months, Japanese were entitled to generous quantities of cleaned rice, Japanese Condiment (shoyo and miso, which are nutritious foods made from beans) and fresh vegetables or potatoes, fresh or dried fish or fresh meat, and tea, with a snail portion of bread per day. For the remaining three years, their diet changed to smaller quantities of rice and larger amounts of bread, meat and potatoes, with no Condiment.167 The frequent employment of Japanese cooks may have made the food more amenable for these labourers. The manager of the Weary Bay Sugar Company was concerned that the food supplied in Cooktown goal - it consisted of 1½ lbs bread and 1½ lbs beef per day - contributed to the attractiveness of this abode to the Javanese. He recommended that the food allowance for goaled indents be cut down to “bread and water as a punishment",168 and probably as an inducement for them to return to the plantation. Curtailing the food supply as a coercive measure was commonly applied by masters. This method received legal sanction in many contracts. A Javanese contract stipulated Their right to wages and food is immediately forfeited in ease of their refusal to do the work assigned to them."169 Contracts binding Malays similarly gave the employer the power to starve the men into submission:170 deprived of food and wages they were in a helpless position. The Polynesian Labourers Act of 1868 legally compelled employers to provide a stipulated daily ration, yet this was far from an adequate diet and even this seals was rarely observed.171 Captain Pannefather, later to become an Inspector of Pacific Island labour, claimed that "the sustenance allowance allowed to the four white men would feed his crew of eight Malays and South Sea Islanders". 172 It is clear that men of similar age and occupation need the same amount of food. Furthermore, it was commonly noted that coloured labourers worked much harder and longer than whites, whilst they were to receive only half the food to meet energy requirements. The logic behind the allocation of poor rations centred on economic considerations and because masters could compel coloured labourers to accept these whereas whites would refuse. Claudius Whish thus lectured his Melanasian employees, "maize meal is good enough for blackfellows, flour for white man". Discrimination against coloured Indians in the distribution of food was justified by stereotypes of their racial characteristics. Henry Kirke provided a typically derisive stereotype of Chinese for the Economic Review - The Chinaman is a strong man in every way; he is capable of great physical endurance...he cannot be fastidious about his food; he will eat offal which a negro would scorn to touch; dogs cats, rats, mice...eggs are esteemed for their age; and the natural death of any animal from disease or accident is no hindrance to its entombment in the stomachs of these poor hungry wretches. Such stereotypes of coloured races served to justify the practice of giving the indentured labourer rancid meat or head, entrails and refuse which would normally have been thrown away.174 Many boat-owners in the Pearl Shell and Beche-de-mer industries left dietary scales blank and merely wrote "sufficient without waste"175 or "rations in usual scale”.176 Chester, Police Magistrate at Thursday Island lamented - Many an unfortunate creature has starved on this "sufficiency" and I beg very seriously to cally [sic] your attention to this unlawful cruelty which I know has been perpetuated under this form of agreement.177 Thomas Hoghton of the H.M.S. Beagle who spoke in glowing terms of the respectability of the Pearling industry, insisted that the crews were well fed, received salted meat, tinned meats fine quality flour and "sharps" (inferior quality flour),sugar, and tea. Additionally, they could receive curry powder, sardines, salmon, jam, butter, milk, pickles, mustard, molasses, and sometimes vegetables, fish and oysters.178 Commander of the H.M.S. Sappho was equally defensive of the business but listed only "potted meats', sardines, and salmon as principle rations. If any coloured labourers actually enjoyed such luxurious food, - and this is highly questionable - certainly not all did. The crew of one Pearling boat of various races received nothing but maize meal boiled in water and given to them twice a day. If they failed to procure a certain quantity of fish from the reefs their second meal was stopped altogether.179 The only break from this monotony occurred when "small places of meat were given to some as an encouragement for extra work such as cutting firewood.”180 When a government officer was placed on board, he demanded that they have at least a portion of meat each, and about 1 lb of biscuits divided amongst eight, as a supplement.181 Heath remarked with acute observation - This may appear to be "sufficient” to the employers at whose expense these men are fed but can hardly be so to those who are working all day in a tropical sun on the reefs.182 Such a diet of cheap carbohydrates gave the labourers a feeling of satiety but was extremely detrimental to their health. Nineteenth century colonists did not possess the sophisticated knowledge of nutrition which most nations have access to in the Twentieth Century, yet modern findings serve to confirm the inadequacy of and consequent deleterious effects of poor ration scales on the coloured indent's health. According to the F.A.O. Report of 1974 on human nutritional requirements, persons engaging in heavy manual work have greater energy needs and high quality proteins are thus necessary to supply this energy. Proteins also repair body wear and tear, and are essential to growth. Fats and carbohydrates cannot be substituted to protein because they lack nitrogen.183 Cereals are often low in nutritional value - maize lacks the essential amino-acids tryptophan and lysine, and wheat similarly lacks lysine.184 Legumes can make up this deficiency, but these were generally not provided in the rations of the indentured labourer. Protein deficiencies cause a craving for sweet foods because of low blood-sugar levels. Coloured indents working on plantations ate raw sugar cane all day because of their low-protein diet, and Chinese at Boondooma Station frequently spent their hard-earned money on “lollies".186 A lack of vegetables and fresh fruit was the most significant shortcoming of the Indentured labourer's diet. The problem was widespread throughout all sections of colonial society, as inadequate supplies of these commodities were grown and slow and primitive transportation prevented supplies from reaching remote areas without consequent deterioration.187 R.G.W. Herbert thus reasoned that many British immigrants fell ill because "the blood becomes unhealthy for want of a vegetable diet".188 Frequent convictions on Thursday Island for cutting down edible fruit trees189 may have stemmed from labourer's cravings for this necessity which was completely lacking from rations usually allotted. Chinese and later Japanese gardeners had been indentured by white employers to provide their families with vegetables. In Cooktown they grew bananas, pineapples, sweet potatoes, and all sorts of vegetables.190 However, the master rarely went to the expense of providing this essential commodity to coloured indents. Some Cingalese had been allowed "242 square yards of land for garden cultivation, such land not transferable without Employer's sanction".191 Garden work would, however, have derived them of their small relaxation time, and provided the master with an excuse to supply them no rations. Climatic stress192 and strenuous working conditions increase one's needs for protein and correct nutrition. The diet allotted to indentured labourers, however, suited neither their nutritional requirements nor their cultural tastes. Food was monotonous and frequently prepared in an unappetizing manner. It was not the correct sort of food for tropical conditions, and was decidely inferior to what an indentured white man would have received.
Housing
Immigrant housing was provided in exchange for indentured labour. Very few contracts made any specification as to the type of shelter to be provided, so this was left to the master's discretion. The only stipulations were that "a suitable home for which the... [labourer) did not have to pay rent" be provided. Little information is available on the construction of such accommodation, although it is clear that employers were keen to avoid expenditure in this aspect of the indentured labourer's living conditions. Indian labourers were thus desired because their dwellings were "simple and confined”.194 Lady Brassey described a group of labourer's dwellings at Mourilyan as "a clean and tidy-looking coolie village. In contrast she described the proprietor's house as a "comfortable house of the bungalow type."196 This type of dwelling was extremely specious, although it served to house only two men in this case, Mr. Mash and Mr. Levinge.197 Whereas contrasts in living standards frequently exist between employer and employee, Image These are typical planter's hones - well appointed, spacious and dignified. the differences were extremely marked when coloured people were involved. "Coolie villages" which were predominantly built on large plantations, were made from dried grass and cane sheaves, usually in the customary tradition of the racial group to inhabit then. Areas allocated to such huts were commonly swampy, poorly-drained land common in the coastal strip where sugar cultivation predominated.198 There were a variety of races - and only small numbers from the same areas of the various countries on each estate - so frequently labourers had to reside with people of divergent cultural habit a. As Saunders notes, the new environment for the immigrant lacked not only essential raw materials to make adequate dwellings in traditional styles, but also the co-operative manpower.199 The problem of such houses was that they ware often built too small and low for comfort and poorly ventilated.200 Hartley, the Cooktown Police Magistrate reported that Malay quarters at Vilele plantation consisted of weatherboard houses raised on blocks of a few feet from the ground. They were "well ventilated and provided with a bunk for each man and tables and forms run down the centre on which the meals were served. "201 Like their meals, however, this Western-style accommodation was not favoured by the Malaya, although in European eyes it was considered adequate for this "class of labour."202 Melanesians had preferred the huts they were accustomed to at home - as Saunders notes, "the prospect of inhabiting a bare wooden house with hard bunks was hardly attractive".203 No separate quarters had been erected for Image The planter's home at Hambleton was luxuriously appointed overlooking the surrounding plantation.
Image:Japanese domestic servants stand in the driveway Source: Queenslander, 10 February,1894
accomodating the sick at Vilele, so this factor would not have added to the comfort of these dwellings.204 As the Police Magistrate had noted, there were many nationalities with divergent cultural and living habits,205 and these would have preferred to reside with people of their tribe or nationality to maintain cultural, identity. Hambleton Plantation, had three separate quarters, one for Japanese, Chinese and Melanesians - "each nationality has quarters peculiar to itself.206 The sleeping quarters of the Japanese were reportedly "as clean and neat as a new pin, and resembled nothing more than a bazaar".207 Each man had a small division on the long boarded platform all to himself, and here fresh matting was spread and his box and belongings were laid out. Although these dwellings were apparently European-style in construction, the Japanese had managed to make themselves feel at home by decorating them in traditional Japanese style. Saunders notes that Melanesians occasionally decorated the rails and doors of these wooden abodes with drawings in chalk or pencil to make them more "habitable, familiar and congenial".208 A northern traveller recorded that the Japanese "apartment was more or less gaily and tastefully decorated, and the general effect was eminently pleasing". The Chinese quarter was described by the Queenslander correspondent as "by no means clean”209 - it was probably infested with vermin, which coloured people expected to tolerate because of popularly held stereotypes which implied that they easily endured such pests. The Image This "coolie village" for the Japanese, Chinese and Melanesians who worked at Hambleton was situated, as was typical with other plantations, on low-lying swampland which was most inconducive to health. Chinese infused their dwelling with "the peculiar odour whichever clings to the disciples of Confucius', which was either from opium or joss-sticks. In these quarters, there was little or no attempt at decoration, save tokens and charms placed at intervals here and there along the walls to frighten away blue devils and bad spirits. The Queenslander writer preferred the dwellings of the Melanesians because of their jovial friendly atmosphere and numerous "babies of all sizes - happy, jolly, naked, very round-bellied babies ... the only decorations visible in theirquarters.”210 Separate quarters were commonly provided for broad racial groups on the Plantation. "Trotter” of the Bulletin had visited Halifax, reporting in unflattering terms - There is a Chow quarter, a Jap quarter, and a Dago and Syrian quarter, redolent of macaroni hovels, tomato stew, opium and the omnipresent banana...212 Some married couples were provided with separate dwellings. Water supplies were frequently neglected by the manager, and in the often stagnant water mosquitoes bred to accompany other vermin, such as rats, mice and fleas which were common in both Western-style and traditional dwellings. On pastoral stations, indents were housed in bark and slab huts like those of white workers. Chinese passing through these properties often stayed for several nights In such “huts" at Corfield's Gigoomgan Station.213 When groups of Chinese cleared land for pastoral purposes, they built rough dwellings
Image: Pearl luggers and fishing schooner at Thursday Island.
with straw roofs and log frames, similar to the makeshift shelters that pioneering settlers built. Indentured labourers working on boats slept in the cramped quarters provided, for up to ten months at a time. The Straits Aborigines often had no choice but to sleep on the open decks of these boats, with no protection front wind or rain. Poor accommodation was supplied on ships which exported the coloured labourers. H. Browns, who inspected "Coolie ships" when they arrived at port, explained that sleeping accommodation consisted of - nothing but the open 'tween deck, with a small batten nailed along the deck on either side, for the natives to put their feet against, to keep them from slipping to leeward when the ship was lying over.214 Indian and Javanese domestic servants, such as cooks, laundrymen, home helpers and gardeners would have been given a small share-room in the house or establishment,215 or housed in the traditional "servant's quarters” built adjacent to their master's home. Clothing Early Indian labourers ideally received - a warm jacket, cap, and trousers [sic] a pair of blankets for the winter months; and light materials for the summer such as calico. To these two pairs of strong shoes should be added, if the nature of the country should require it.216 Another of the factors attracting employers to Indian labour, had been that their clothing was "simple and scanty”.217 The Indian Government stipulated in the 1880's that the allowance of clothing for an indentured male should be no less than one hat, four shirts, three pairs of trousers, two blanket, and two Image Chinese labourers retain traditional style dress whilst on a Kingaroy peanut farm. Source: Queenslander, 10 May,1919, pairs of "Hindoostanee shoes".218 Unfortunately these comparatively adequate provisions of clothing failed to be distributed by colonial employers. Two pairs of trousers were frequently all that was provided. Chinese immigrants were supplied with two suits of clothing, “blue dungaree frocks and trousers”219 for the voyage out, but no underclothing. Hutchunson Browne, who had inspected many "Coolie ships" stated that neither of these suits were "sufficiently warm to enable them to withstand the change of climate to which they became exposed on the passage."220 Robert Towns claimed that warn clothing was provided to round the Cape of Good Hope,221 but he was notorious for his unscrupulously-run immigrant ships. In 1846, the fee for engaging Indian coolies - including provisions for voyage and clothing - were estimated at £2.5.0 which led shippers to cut costs by providing only the cheapest minimal clothing and provisions.222 Chinese do not appear to have received any footwear, blankets or head coverings. Chinese at Boondooma Station, thus had to buy their own hats and boots.223 A labourer by the name of Kong, was offered by one of T.L.M Prior's overseers, who was also a Chinese, two pairs of trousers, two coats, two pairs of boots, two handkerchiefs, two waistcoats, two pairs stockings, 4 oz. tobacco and 1 lb. soap, to work at his Logan River station as a shepherd. However, Kong received only half these items and they were all deducted from his wages, which meant that he would receive no wages for a considerable period. The overseer had apparently Image A Cingalese indentured labourer works at a coffee plantation, probably H. Blaxland's at Mackay. tricked him into believing that these items were free supplies in order to encourage Kong to sign for a three and a half year indenture.224 The following description provides an illustration of the plight of Indian servants who had not been provided with adequate clothing - They were - clad worse than the black natives of the colony. A dirty piece of canvass, tied around their loins, was the sole clothing of some of them. What rags they had on, seemed to be tattered remains of the clothing in which they left India, aided by gifts of old garments from somebody or other.225 They had complained of the cold, which was hardly surprising for if these men had been supplied with any clothing at all, it was of a very inferior quality. Plantation workers possessed two sets of clothing, although its provision was not stipulated in their agreements. Unlike Melanesians, they were accustomed to wearing some clothing, which their religion demanded. The Manager of Mourilyan reported that "if they get wet, after their work is done, they change their clothes at once." Clothing worn by Cingalese labourers on their arrival had been mocked by the Bundaberg Star. Their white overalls and gowns were said to give them an "effeminate" appearance."227 However, such loose, light clothing was actually suitable for the tropical climate and working out in the fields under the hot sun. A photo depicting Cingalese picking coffee at Mackay -probably on Blaxland's plantation - is evidence that some continued to wear loose robes, while others wore loose trousers. Hats were necessary on the plantation, but rarely provided. Japanese also wore traditional clothing. In 1894, they were described as being clad in folds of soft clinging material”,228 and a photograph taken In this year depicts then in simple kimonos with obis or broad sashes. By 1898, they were entitled to two complete sets of clothing each year, consisting of one jacket, one pair trousers, one straw hat, a raincoat and one blanket par annum.229 Chinese tended to imitate Europeans in their style of dress, although some persisted in wearing traditional dress. Blankets and clothing for sale or supplied from station stores and island shops were often of mediocre quality. Because clothing was expensive and frequently not provided by employers, dirty, vermin-infested or tattered garments had to be worn for months on end.230 Soap was frequently not supplied to wash these articles.
Health
Workload conditions, accommodation, clothing and rations which indentured labourers had to tolerate were far from conducive to good health. Frequently the workers arrived at Australian ports already in advanced stages of disease, as conditions aboard labour ships were apalling. Hutchison Browne reported that a shipload of Chinese indents had to drink water "tainted with impure matter".211 and as a a result dysentary broke out “with frightening severity” -seven or eight men dying a day. Only 264 Coolies aboard the General palmer in 1854 out of 333 embarked at Amoy eventually arrived in Sydney. Many fell overboard in their weakened condition. Browne explained - A great many of then arrived here in a wretched state, some of them hardly able to move along the decks, so frightfully were they reduced by sickness.232 No wines or articles of food "of a nourishing and restorative quality such as are necessary to combat disease"233 were kept on board such boats. Some ships even lacked water closets, and as a result "several of the sick men dropped from the chains into the sea, from sheer physical exhaustion".234 Widespread scurvy and "a kind of dropsy"235 caused further ill-health and many deaths. While a doctor was usually aboard such ships, there was little he could do because of the lack of medical supplies.236 Chinese, Indian and Japanese contracts stipulated the provision of an official health officer before ships were permitted to embark on their journeys. On arrival in Queensland, a Medical officer was obliged to examine recruits for disease and deformities as well as to prevent the employment of juvenile indents.237 This often proved to be a cursory procedure – Drs. Wray and Thompson labeled these inspections as "a sham".238 Quarantine procedures for contagious diseases were conducted with little consideration for the well-being of the patients. For example, in 1877, one immigrant ship in quarantine, the Mecca, was described as "worse than the Black Hole of Calcutta"239 - 480 people were "incarcerated" in it, "penned up" in a space of 190' x 28', with "often no air". There was no water and no disinfectant, and it was feared that a serious fever would break out during the quarantine period.240 Sick people off immigrant boats were sometimes sent to city hospitals if these would accept non-white patients,241 but many indents were sent to the station or plantation of their indenture without any recuperating period. As R. L. Evans explains of colonial Queensland: [The] emphatic interlinking of indolence and sin was of greatest significance when judgment was collectively passed upon the unfit, for the pauperised, the incapacitated and the infirm did not fit comfortably anywhere within the grand colonial plan...a kind of moral determinism thus activated a penumbra of blame around the lives of the indigent, the irrational and the unemployable. And where long-term incapacity, whether mental or physical, was rapidly identified as the logical achievement of protracted immorality, social and official reactions tended to harden along punitive, exclusionist lines. As school master Thomas Hanger, observed, "The principle underlying the curriculum" in Queensland schools was "It's your duty to work; if you don't work, you'll starve”.242 Colonial morality was attuned to the prospect of social and material success. Any male who did not fit into the ethic of the "self-made man" tended to be labeled as a moral degenerate.243 When this rationale was applied to the "expendable" coloured indent whose whole raison d'etre was to perform economic functions for a white master, such an attitude resulted in even more callous and negligent treatment than to the white "deviant". The high disease and death rates which consequently followed were attributed not to ill-treatment, but to "inevitable" laws of nature by racist doctrines. This meant that in the course of history the rules of survival of the fittest took their pro-determined course, so it was only to be expected that the "weak and inferior" would collapse in contact with the "strong." The coloured race's "deficient" constitutions were thus blamed for the high morbidity, and the Melanesian, for example, was said to be an "easy prey to an attack that a more energetic mind would have been able to repel.244 It is more likely that their despondency was caused by the numbers they had seen die,245 and the insubstantial help they knew they would receive to enable any recovery. Free medical attendance, as was legally required for Melanesians after 1880, was stipulated In contracts for most of the other races. At Mourilyan, Javanese were treated by a doctor employed by the management. Cingalese were entitled to free medical attendance at Ford's Bundaberg estate. However, if the labourer suffered "a protracted or severe illness”, he was entitled to only half wages, and food would be granted only on a Doctor's certificate.246 A Singapore agreement stated - In the event of any of the labourers falling ill from natural causes the employee shall furnish him with medicine and a place for his medical treatment until recovery for such time of illness the labourer will not receive payment of his wages but such time will be accumulated for on the term of the Contract.247 The employer was thus intent to lose no profit on account of his labourer's illnesses. If an illness exceeded thirty days or it was considered the worker's "own fault" he had to pay back food supplied as wall as receive no wages whatsoever. Such a pattern could not have occurred in a slave-system, where the master in his own interests provided for his servant's well-being. When the indent had to drink from puddles because other water supplies were too distant, or failed to change his clothing and thus became ill, his employer could say that such instances were the labourer's own fault. It was not an infrequent occurence for coloured workers to be found dead on the plantations. Tha Cairns Argus reported that a Chinese had been found dead in the fields at Hambleton Plantation, and another on the Barron River, during the same week.248 In both instances the indents were performing a normal day's a work instead of receiving care for their ailments, perhaps prompted to keep working due to such stipulations as the above. Venereal disease was considered a self-Imposed affliction, and in the case of a labourer contracting it, he had to make up lost days and pay for the cost of food for each day's absence. The Contagious Dlseases Act (1868) had allowed for this disease to be considered a criminal offence for women. A periodic medical inspection by police summons was compulsory, under threat of three month's imprisonment. "Guilty" women were dispatched to special "lock" hospitals, often behind jails, where they might be detained for up to seven months. During their "seclusion", attempts were made to bring them to a sense of past degradation.249 The Act was far from effective, however, as it caused many prostitutes to merely leave the areas where the act was enforced, and lulled male clients into a sense of false security as regards contagion. The restricted seclusion of a "lock" hospital deterred prostitutes from seeking help except under compulsion. Furthermore, the one-sided nature of the Act, which ignored the as carriers of such diseases meant that woman and other men could continue to become infected and thus spread venereal disease. Furthermore, the prospect of cure was remote, as no effective medical antidote existed for syphilus and those cleared of gonorrhoea were released only to become re-infected.250 Colonists commonly argued along moral lines that "the disease was judicial, a visitation from God with which it would be impious to interfere." Thus sufferers should be left to rot, their plight acting as a warning to other waverers.252 The coloured indent with venereal disease was condemned for his licentious behaviour, which was especially disapproved because it implied that he had been cohabiting with white or black women, and miscegenation and the half-castes which might result were viewed as social evils which would contribute to rapid "race degeneration”. Venereal diseases were thus considered more a punishable offence than an illness that could be cured and official contracts sanctioned this attitude. Thus any absence "on account of venereal disease or...laziness” was billed according to current pay-rates to be deducted from the worker's account - due wages would be withheld until the indentured labourer had paid back days lost.253 W.O. Hodginson commented in a vague and evasive manner that such stipulations were objectionable because this occurrence was likely to happen where natural and uncontrollable instincts are ignored by the importation of large bodies of men in the prime of life isolated from social ties.254 He failed to mention the Aboriginal, Japanese or white women with whom the Malays consorted, whose plight was surely worthy of concern in the light of their disease and the “uncontrollable instincts" of indentured labourers. In all likelihood, such an outlet for sexual cravings was preferred to the “horrors" of homosexuality or masturbation of which Chinese labourers were frequently accused. They were thought guilty of "abominable atrocities", of "immoral ind beastly propensities",251 language so harsh was seldom applied to exploitative sex with black woman. Those coloured labourers who became insane were considered, like all lunatics in colonial Queensland as "the most dangerous of all created beings."256 They, too, were treated as criminals, being confined in or near jails, and forced to withstand prison-like conditions. At Woogaroo Asylum, the mentally deranged were forced to wear prison uniforms and eat prison food. It was argued that insanity "arose from the same origins of "idleness, extravagance and vice", the "allurements of novel temptation...burning thirsts of passions" and "craving for strong liquors."257 The response toward the mentally ill, like the leper, was one of denial and repulsion, mingled with fears of race deterioration due to the increasing numbers and brooding potential of such "degenerates" The insane wore chained, handcuffed, flogged, punched, and subjected to outmoded "instruments of torture" which had been used in English asylums decades earlier to "inspire fear in patients.”258 Coloured persons committed to institutions were segregated from whites, receiving even worse treatment than Europeans, as the public had no wish to sustain such unwanted immigrants, for whom they apparently felt negligible responsibility. Dr Smith of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum thusarranged with the government to have a group of Chinese mental patients shipped book to their homeland at the expense of their fellow-nationals.259 The American theory that certain "species" had aptitudes or immunities to particular diseases, and that the contact between white and coloured races would infect Europeans with maladies such as cholera, typhoid, smallpox and leprosy, soon gained credence amongst the Australian colonists.260 Popular newspapers such as the Boomerang, the Queensland Figaro, the Worker and the Bulletin spread the notion that "all Asiatics and Polynesians" were "simply saturated with leprosy germs",261 and this rapidly captured the public imagination. The leper was the focus of public horror: "a spectral warning of the perils which multi-racialism threatened." As R. L. Evans most ably explains: The crime, immorality and disease of Chinamen, Pacific Islanders and Aborigines were all grouped indiscriminately under a heading of danger to the European - and the common reaction to their sickness was not so much one of sympathy as of disgust.262 Consequently, the leper, like a criminal, was subject to arrest and incarceration rather than treated to help and comfort. From 1890 to 1899, there were eighty diagnosed lepers in Queensland: sixteen Europeans, nineteen Chinese and thirty-two Melanesians. Yet doctors methods of detection and diagnosis were primitive, and in all likelihood fungoid and other diseases were mistaken for leprosy."263 Some Chinese lepers were held as prisoners near jails, but they were most frequently sent to uninhabitable Islands such as Great Lizard Island, Daydream Island, Friday Island and Peel Island. Separate lazarets existed for coloured lepers, who were invariably sent to the most inaccessible islands. Shelter and facilities in lazarets were virtually non-existent, and most lepers died from want of food rations, chest complaints, or suicide.264
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