The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED "The Evening News," "The Morning News," and "The Echo." MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1878.

Auckland Star, Volume IX, Issue 2607, 26 August 1878, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED "The Evening News," "The Morning News," and "The Echo."

MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1878.

for the cause that _____ a_ssista__c c, For the wrong that noedJr resistance. For the future i- t_e -Stone*, And tha good that wa «_n 00.

There was rather a warm debate in the House of Representatives the other day on the question of permitting Chinese immigration. A number of members aired their eloquence on the subject, but, strange to say, on neither side were the arguments much to the poiut. On behalf of the " heatnen Chinee " it was urged that he is as a rule careful, frugal, and industrious ; in fact, a valuable settler. His enemies, au contraire, protested that he is almost invariably ait-honest, addicted to abominable habits, and a heathen. Both statements though at first sight apparently irreconcilable, can bo proved true. The fact is, the Chinese are an odd mixture of vice and virtue. Sometimes the one, sometimes the other, predominates, but in a Celestial's character both are nearly always present. This being so, the question of permitting the race a free entrde into the colony ought to bo very seriously considered. On tho one hand it may said— firstly, that we have no right to bar out steady, hard-working settlers who are sure to greatly enhance the value of the country in which they take up their quarters ; secondly, that as the Chinese keep themselves to themselves, and never attempt proselytising, theirreligionaud privatehabits need not be taken iuto consideration ; aud thirdly, that the English are more likely to do the Chinese good than the Chinese to corrupt the English. These, we think, seem about tho best arguments that can be adduced favourable to non-interference ; aud, in ohv opinion, they are not altogether true, and if they were, are neither convincing nor sufficient. The first and most potent reason for not permitting Chinese immigration is simply this : That it has not been attended with happy results in other colonies where it has been tried. Both Queensland and Victoria ha-re been obliged to all but prohibit it, and we may be pretty sure that they did not do so without cause. Again, it is a well-known fact that when Celestials gain a firm footing iv a country they come to it in swarms, and that though a few of them are unobjectionable a great many are just the reverse. Tho odious habits and customs, which no one notices amongst a few, become scandalously; obvious in a crowd. The settlement —witness that of Little Bourke-street, in Melbourne, and the Chinese quarter in San Francisco—gets known in time as a den of unequalled infamy the haunt of all the worst and most brazen-faced scoundrels. Another fatal objection to the introduction of (.Chinese is that the iace can never fuse with the English population. These people come into a country, crowd together in unwholesome quarters, live upon the most meagre fare, aud do not perform any of those duties to the State which are borne by white men. t They are thus enabled to compete with European labour on unequal terms. White labourers must sink to the Chinese level, abstain from marrying, aud sleep together by dozens in small rooms, if they are to hold their own. Singularly imitative, the Chinaman soon acquires the skill of the labourer, and even of the artizau ; and able to undersell Europeans, he acquires wealth, with which he departs for the Flowery Laud. Worse than the grasshopper, he eats into tho very heart and stamina of a country, itsindustriaipopulation. Iflabouris "cheap" because the labourer is content to live in a condition of physical and moral degradation, woe to the country that encourages it. The shocking condition of California, with its swarms of hoodlums and tramps, should be warning enough. American statesmen now recognise the evil, but it has made such headway that .they are at a loss to know how to grapple with it. That New Zealand should wait till a great social difficulty of a similar kind arises, before it deals with the question, is preposterous. But, it is perhaps premature to enact prohibitory laws until we are threatened with an invasion. There is nothing in Chinese immigration, as we have yet known it in New Zealand, to excite alarm ; at the same time, we must not allow this to blind us to the real nature aud results of such a traffic, when it attains anything like important proportions.