Tooth and Cran Sugar Growing Experiment.

Margaret Slocomb presented a talk at the  libraries about Indentured Chinese Labourers. Margaret told us many fascinating facts. One of these was in relation to this picture. When asked for more information Margaret shared the following:
The international trade in indentured Chinese labour was prohibited by authorities in Southern China by early 1874. Nevertheless, the trade simply transferred to Singapore and it was from there that the Maryborough company of Tooth and Cran, with sugar estates totalling over one thousand acres, recruited thirty-nine Chinese men who were all experienced in sugar-growing in southern China.          

The plantations, including Yengarie, Yerra Yerra and Irrowa were already major employers of South Sea Islander labour. Work, pay and living conditions were very poor and the mortality rate among the Kanaka workforce was distressingly high. The new consignment of Chinese indentured labourers proved less willing than the Islanders to remain under those conditions, so the experiment was short-lived.        

Between April 28 and October 8, 1874, no fewer than sixteen of the thirty-nine men appeared in the Maryborough Police Court, one of them on two occasions, charged under the Queensland Masters and Servants Act with disobeying lawful orders, absenting themselves from hired service, and absconding. On 3 September 1874, six of them were apprehended in Gladstone, en route to Rockhampton, and returned to Maryborough. A sugar planter at Yerra Yerra plantation, Edward Croft, testified that they were the hired servants of Robert Tooth, under written contract to serve for three years and that they had each received an advance on wages in Singapore. When they absconded, they had been in service for only four months, but already twenty of the thirty-nine, apart from the six in court, had absconded. The two “ringleaders” were fined £10 or three months’ hard labour, the others received lesser yet still harsh sentences. Exactly a month later, another was charged with “absenting himself from hired service” and given fourteen days in prison. Efforts were made by the prosecutors to portray the men as malingerers, opium addicts, and cheats. Obviously, the defendants were unrepresented and unable to defend themselves. Despite the harsh penalties, two more were charged with absconding by the end of the year.          

This was the last experiment with Chinese indentured labour in the Wide Bay and Burnett districts that had commenced in 1848. In general, the experiment was judged to have been a failure.

Published with consent from Margaret Slocomb
Tags #indentured #labourers #frasercoast #sugar #cane #chinese #experiment