Indentured labour and the development of plantations in Vanuatu : 1867-1922. - article ; n°82 ; vol.42, pg 41-63

Ron Adams

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Journal de la Société des océanistes - Année 1986 - Volume 42 - Numéro 82 - Pages 41-63
This paper examines the phase of plantation development in Vanuatu based on the employment of indentured ni-Vanuatu labourers, a phase which lasted from 1867 to 1922, after which planters turned increasingly to Vietnam to meet their labour requirements. During this period the French reversed the initial British domination of the plantation economy but, like the British, they were never able to close the gap between their labour needs and the labour supply. The result was that neither British nor French planters were ever able to establish the sort of economic hegemony to which they aspired. Indeed, far from the development of a prosperous expatriate planter class, what emerged for many planters was a pattern of mere subsistence survival if not total failure, with the key economic role in the group being increasingly assumed by the ni-Vanuatu themselves.
Le sujet traité est le développement des plantations au Vanuatu pendant la période caractérisée par l'emploi d'ouvriers ni-Vanuatu sous contrat. Cette phase dura de 1867 à 1922, après quoi les planteurs recoururent aux Vietnamiens de manière croissante pour satisfaire leurs besoins de main-d'œuvre. Pendant la période considérée les Français s'assurèrent la domination de l'économie de plantation qui avait d'abord appartenu aux Britanniques, mais, comme ces derniers, ils furent toujours incapables de combler leur déficit de main-d'œuvre. De là suit que ni les planteurs britanniques ni les planteurs français ne réussirent jamais à établir la sorte d'hégémonie économique à laquelle ils aspiraient. Il y a plus, loin qu'elle crée une classe prospère de planteurs expatriés, l'histoire réservait à de nombreux planteurs un destin de pure subsistance sinon d'échec total, cependant que le rôle économique était joué de plus en plus par les ni-Vanuatu eux-mêmes.
23 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: JOURNAL_DE_LA_SOCIETE_DES_OCEANISTES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1986
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Ron Adams
Indentured labour and the development of plantations in
Vanuatu : 1867-1922.
In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. N°82-83, Tome 42, 1986. pp. 41-63.
Abstract
This paper examines the phase of plantation development in Vanuatu based on the employment of indentured ni-Vanuatu
labourers, a phase which lasted from 1867 to 1922, after which planters turned increasingly to Vietnam to meet their labour
requirements. During this period the French reversed the initial British domination of the plantation economy but, like the British,
they were never able to close the gap between their labour needs and the labour supply. The result was that neither British nor
French planters were ever able to establish the sort of economic hegemony to which they aspired. Indeed, far from the
development of a prosperous expatriate planter class, what emerged for many planters was a pattern of mere subsistence
survival if not total failure, with the key economic role in the group being increasingly assumed by the ni-Vanuatu themselves.
Résumé
Le sujet traité est le développement des plantations au Vanuatu pendant la période caractérisée par l'emploi d'ouvriers ni-
Vanuatu sous contrat. Cette phase dura de 1867 à 1922, après quoi les planteurs recoururent aux Vietnamiens de manière
croissante pour satisfaire leurs besoins de main-d'œuvre. Pendant la période considérée les Français s'assurèrent la domination
de l'économie de plantation qui avait d'abord appartenu aux Britanniques, mais, comme ces derniers, ils furent toujours
incapables de combler leur déficit de De là suit que ni les planteurs britanniques ni les planteurs français ne
réussirent jamais à établir la sorte d'hégémonie économique à laquelle ils aspiraient. Il y a plus, loin qu'elle crée une classe
prospère de planteurs expatriés, l'histoire réservait à de nombreux planteurs un destin de pure subsistance sinon d'échec total,
cependant que le rôle économique était joué de plus en plus par les ni-Vanuatu eux-mêmes.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Adams Ron. Indentured labour and the development of plantations in Vanuatu : 1867-1922. In: Journal de la Société des
océanistes. N°82-83, Tome 42, 1986. pp. 41-63.
doi : 10.3406/jso.1986.2822
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jso_0300-953X_1986_num_42_82_2822Indentured labour and the development
of Plantations in Vanuatu — 1867-1922
by
Ron ADAMS *
In 1979 Michel Panoff argued against what under indenture than in any previous year.
might be called the Canberra interpretation of Thereafter the numbers went into a steady
the recruitment of Melanesians for plantation decline as planters turned increasingly to Vie
labour. Specifically, he singled out for criticism tnam for labour; so that 1922, as well as
Stewart Firth, Malama Meleisea and Kerry marking the climax of the phase of plantation
Howe — and by implication Deryck Scarr and development based on the employment of
Peter Corris — for their suggestions that national labour, also marked its end. Examinat
ion of this phase enables us to test Panoff s Melanesians had recruited of their own free
will for plantation work, that recruiters tended contention, and to conclude that the differ
ences between Panoff and the 'Canberra School' to employ fair methods, and that both recruits
and recruiters came to realize the possibilities is at the semantic rather than the interpretative
level. At the same time it is important to take for mutually advantageous cooperation '. For
the debate a stage further 2 and to ask whether Panoff, given the economic conditions under
which the plantations operated, it was imposs its overall interpretative framework, which
ible to imagine any convergence of interests tends to reduce planter-labourer relations essent
between planter and labourer and, in relation ially to class relations, is not imposing a
concept rooted in a European construction of to his investigation of the Bismarck Archipel
ago, he argued that neither at the time of their political reality and historical discourse. Of
recruitment nor during their period of work course, given that we are, after all, dealing with
European employers of labour, some form of had Melanesian workers entered into freely
'class' analysis is inescapable. But from a negotiated contracts. The debate is relevant
to discussion of plantation development any specifically ni-Vanuatu perspective, the ques
tion of the extent to which indentured labourwhere, given that any planter's wealth is de
rived primarily from the labour of his workers. ers entered into freely negotiated contracts
(from which a conclusion is derived as to the It is particularly pertinent to consideration of
convergence or divergence of planter-labourer plantation development in Vanuatu, where for
the first half century of the process, planters interests), may be less important than the
question of the extent to which recruits' inteand administrators were pre-occupied with
rests, as defined within their own cultural narrowing the gap between labour needs and
context, were being met. In other words, labour supply. As this paper will show, from
1867, when Europeans first set about planting planter-labourer relations need to be assessed
and cultivating crops in the group as a busi not only as an example of class relations, but
also as an example of culture contact, in terms ness, the plantation labour force was almost ex
of which the ni-Vanuatu construction of reality clusively ni-Vanuatu, drawn from other islands,
is allowed its own autonomy. and working mainly under indenture for up to
three years. The high point was reached in
1922, when more ni-Vanuatu were engaged
* Sociology Department, Western Institute, Melbourne.
1. Panoff 1979, Firth 1976, Meleisea 1976, Howe 1978, Scarr 1967, Giles 1968 [1877], Corris 1973.
2. In the direction suggested by Bonnemaison 1984, 1985a, 1985b. SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÊANISTES 42
called a 'town', with its cluster of cottages, The possibility of the islands of the South
stores and warehouses, and its steam-powered west Pacific supplanting the Confederate States
as the main source of cotton for European gins and mill for working coconut fibre. By the
mills had struck a number of entrepreneurs end of 1874 Efaté could boast thirty-one
almost as soon as the first shots were fired in European settlers, twenty-nine of whom were
British. Ten plantations employed nearly 300 lthe American Civil War3. Rev. John Inglis,
abourers from other islands working under long-time resident missionary on the island of
Aneityum in southern Vanuatu succeeded in indenture for one to three years. Hebblewhite's
station at Port Escema was the most import1863 in persuading wealthy Presbyterians in
ant, with forty hectares under cotton and Scotland to subscribe 1500 £ to establish the
corn, and 121 contract workers. G. H. Davis's New Hebrides Cotton Company Limited. As
well as providing seed and basic implements, Botany Estate came next, with fifty hectares of
cotton and yams and forty-six labourers. The the Company sent out a European manager to
remaining plantations averaged twelve hectares instruct the Aneityumese in the cultivation of
cotton on individual plots set aside in each actually under cultivation, with labour
ers apiece — mostly on two year contracts. family's subsistence garden 4. Geared as it was
But the plans at least were grand, with estates to the existing scale of native horticulture, it
of up to 2000 hectares envisaged for the near was anticipated that the scheme would extend
future 5. to the adjacent islands, and the initial enthu
There was not the same concentration of siasm of the Aneityumese seemed to confirm
activity on Tanna, though Lewin had quickly expectations. They dug the plots, planted the
attracted around him at Lenakel a band of seed, and weeded around the bushes once or
fellow planters and hangers-on. Other planters twice. But they did not take to the monotony
were scattered along the north-west coast, of collecting the cotton pods day after day and
the Company eventually folded in 1868. Henc particularly around White Grass where the
open and apparently fertile grasslands promieforth, the cultivation of cash crops in Va
sed the best sites for plantations. It is impossnuatu was to proceed along conventional plan
ible to give precise figures, but it is clear that tation lines, with larger-scale planting carried
out by imported contract labour supervised by upwards of twenty Europeans, including at
least six women and one child, had settled European planters or overseers.
The process began with the purchase of along the west coast of Tanna by the early
1870s6. With fifty-five hectares actually under 730 hectares on the west coast of Tanna by
Ross Lewin in 1867, and the settlement of cotton (and plans for a further 800) Lewin was
McLeod and his partner Trueman at Havan- the most substantial planter, followed by Do
nald McLeod with twelve hectares of cotton in nah Harbour Efaté in the first half of 1868.
full-bearing in September 1872 (expanded to The Efaté settlement was ab