The Hawai’ian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Herbert River Farmers’ Association: Regional Articulations of Agricultural Associations on the Periphery

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the nineteenth century the stereotypical association representing sugarcane growers was a planters’ association, the epitome of which, was the Hawai’ian Sugar Planters’ Association. The Herbert River Farmers’ Association, formed by a group of small farmers in the tropical north of Australia, was the antithesis. This is because they represented two distinct modes of agricultural production, the plantation and the small farm. Both inherited their associative traditions from the British Isles. Much of agricultural association scholarship has had a tendency to focus on associations formed by the elite and studies of regional and local small agricultural associations are scattered and uncoordinated. Drawing upon the Hawai’ian and Australian sugarcane industries this article explores the differing modes of production adopted in each to explain why their agricultural associations took different paths. Hawai’i and north Queensland offer a unique context for a comparative examination of associational behaviour on the colonial periphery.