PROCEEDINGS YESTERDAY AFTER NOON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 74, 28 March 1894, Page 5

PROCEEDINGS YESTERDAY AFTER NOON.

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

After we went to press yesterday afternoon, the following basineßs was transacted at the Conference of Trades and Labour delegates :—

GOVERNMENT CLOTHING SUPPLIES.

On the motion of Mr Crawley, seconded by Mr Bain, it was resolved :—"That bhia Conference disires to impress on the Railway Commissioners the necessity of at once taking into consideration the advisability of having all the clothing required by them for the railways made up in the colony, and wouMalso direct the attention of the different volunteer companies throughout the colony to the desirability of adopting the same system."

THE ALIEN QUESTION.

The Conference then proceeded to the consideration of the alien and cheap labour question. Mr A., Ward (Wellington) moVed :—•• That this Conference draws the attention of the Government to the necessity for legislation having for its object the restriction of Asiatic and pauper labour, and recommends that . the poll-tax on Chinese be increased to £100, and the proportion to the tonnage of vessels carrying thorn to New Zealand be one to every 500 tons, and that such legislation be extended to all coloured labourers, also to all aliens brought out to the colony under contract to work for a fixed period at specified rates of wages;"

Mr Ward, in an able and forcible speech, depicted the evils of Chinese labour and the undesirable character of the Chinaman as a cheap labourer and as a member of' the community. He warned the Conference that it the authorities shut their eyes to the alarming encroachment of the Chinese in the labour market they would find the colony soon flooded with Chinese. He referred to the influx of Chinese into the United States, prior to the Exclusion Act, and said that during the six years prior to thab Act passing no less than 46,192 Chinese arrived in the States. He considered it was the duty of the Government to protect citizens againsb cheap'coloured foreign labour. New Zealand should be a white man's country. Going on to deal with the question of the Austro-Hungarian immigrants, who formed a large portion of tho foreign element on the gumfields, Mr Ward said that a dirtier and filthier race did not exist. They were hot the sort of people to assimilate with the English-speak-ing race. Tho Austro-Hungarian did nob intend to stop here. Like the Chinese, he was bent only on amassing a small sum which would be to him a fortune, with which to return to his native land. Mr Ward also referred to the Italians and Assyrians, and said that the latter were not even producers like the Chinese, but simply parasites on the white community. Mr A. Collins seconded the motion, and several other members of the Conference spoke strongly in favour of the exclusion of Chinese, Assyrians, and other undesirable aliens. .

Mr Ward pointed oub that) the New Zealand Chinese poll-tax was only onetenth of the poll-tax levied in Australia ; so that when the Chinese begin to find out that they can get into New Zealand for £90 less than in Australia, they would soon come here in shoals, i

The motion was carried unanimously.