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The Rev. Dr. Montgomery, Bishop of Tasmania, who lately visited all the stations in the South Seas under the control of the Melanesian Mission, said that "he has seen more good than evil in the Labour Trade as now carried on by British vessels."
The Rev. Dr. John Marden, principal of the Sydney Presbyterian Ladies' College, who was sent by the New South Wales Church to visit the New Hebrides (the scene of Dr. Paton's former missionary labours) made on his return a report in which he says, as if in direct reply to Dr. Paton, that the Labour Traffic "is very far from slavery. The missionaries of the New Hebrides are agreed that the mode of the traffic on the part of the British is fairly clean. It is idle to talk of murder, outrage, and bloodshed; such statements are untrue to fact. It is universally acknowledged on the Islands that the 'boys' recruit willingly … I could hear of no murders or outrages. The natives could tell of none. Instances of kidnapping I heard of, but not in connection with the Queensland traffic. We may safely conclude that the recruiting by British subjects is carried out in accordance with the Laws, and abuses of a violent nature are rare or unknown."
Professor Henry Drummond, the author of "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," "The greatest thing in the World," &c, visited the Queensland plantations three years ago and also many of the South Sea Islands. On his return to England, in May, 1892, he thus spoke to a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette:—" To keep these happy children to their own coral islands and cut them off from the contaminations of civilization may be a pardonable ideal to the missionary. But it is a question whether such a state of thing is possible … The drafting of successive bands of natives to a civilized country for a term of years, and then shipping them back to their own islands—as the labour employer is bound to do—might become an important factor in the progress of these races. Everything would depend on the treatment they received and the moral atmosphere which surrounded them. The Queensland Government has certainly left no stone unturned to secure that, so far as legal enactments can protect an inferior race, the Kanakas are safe on Australian soil from any possible tyranny, violence, or even physical discomfort … It is a simple fact that in several cases the Kanakas have been improved by their residence in Australia. When the relations between employer and employed at home are perfect, it will be time to use the moral arguments as final against the Kanaka exodus to Queensland … At present the Kanakas are thoroughly well treated by their masters—on the mere ground of economy this is necessary, Kanaka labour being far too costly to be trifled with."
The Rev. Alex. C. Smith, Convenor of the Foreign Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, on behalf of his Church, visited the sugar districts and made a special report which
