THE INDIAN COOLIE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 69, 21 March 1919, Page 4

THE INDIAN COOLIE.

Twenty Indians from Fiji landed yesterday from the Talune. The only restriction that our law places on them is chat they should pass a language test. So simple is this test tliat not one in a hundred of these Indians fails to come up to the standard required. The consequence is that this Dominion has become the happy hunting ground of the native of India, who has served his indenture in Fiji, and ls not desirous of returning to his native land. Tlie position is a very serious one indeed, but we have so far seen no evidence that the authorities are even cognisant of the danger. If nothing is done we will have in a very short space of time a duplication of the Indian problem that is the most serious that faces Xatal to-day. In many lines of business the white man is unable to compete with the Indian. The latter's standard of living i 3 as low or lower than that of the Chinese, and if the black invasion is permitted to go on unheeded there are certain lines of industry and trading from which the

white man will inevitably be ousted. No European can compete with the Indian as a small shopkeeper or hawker, and maintain a reasonable standard of liv ing. This iz not a black man's country and Government must

protect the people from an invasion that would entail misery to thousands. Now is the time to act, while the stream of immigration is comparatively small. Every Indian who returns to his own land from Xew Zealand is the centre of a propaganda that will in short space make tlie Madras Presidency and I'unjaub great centres of recruiting, financed by astute native capitalist-. The language test as it exists is a farce, and its standard should be materially raised without loss of time; but better otili, the Government must face the whole problem honestly and provide legislation that will ensure that the Dominion be not exploited by Oriental labour.