Most of the labour on these plantations during the early years was performed by imported South Sea Islanders who were required to work for three years earning only £6 per annum which was paid out at the end of the contract, often in cheap goods instead of money. At CSR's Victoria Plantation, the Islanders wore a tin disc around theirs necks with a number stamped on it and although they were provided with a hospital, the amount of sickness and death among them was very high, the mortality rate in 1884 being up to 15%. The hospital itself was a temporary structure in which the Islanders were locked in unattended at night. There is a recorded incident where a fight broke out, resulting in a death and mass injury.