Hufnagel-Betham Family Collection
Hufnagel ’ s operation at Vailele employed 130 labourers in 1906 , virtually all of them imported Melanesian workers . The Captain had a firm resistance to employing Chinese labourers , possibly because they were less pliable than the young men from the “ Bismark Islands .” ( Chinese plantation workers began to be brought into Samoa in 1903 ).
The workers were under the control of four overseers . The photo above , which was taken at Vailele in about 1900 , appears to show the overseers , Hufnagel and the visiting DH & PG plantation inspector , Peter Rasmussen . Hufnagel is second from right and Rasmussen third from right .
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