THROUGH YELLOW HANDS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 30, 30 October 1907, Page 5

THROUGH YELLOW HANDS

WELLINGTON'S FRESH FRUIT SUPPLY. THE PRESSURE OF THE ALIEN. The season is approaching when everyone should eat fruit,, and a good deal of it, in preference, to a great extent, to the heavy diet of meat that imposes such heavy duty on the toiling organs unseen. Such'a day as Saturday last, for instance, was suggestive of strawberries and cream, to be eaten in the shade of a tree; of apples and laughter; of peaches and kisses; and all the luxuries of golden summer time. In this land of milk and honey (vide official reports) New Zealand should' be a wonderful fruit-producing country—an Eden where no fruit is forbidden, and whore the vigorous produce of a fertile soil offers up bountiful growth for Man. Here we havo no teeming millions jostling for breathing space ii; a foetid atmosphere—we have only four large centres of population, well-pro-portioned, and a number of smaller towns dotted over the country—surely an ideal place for the cultivation of those products dear to the stomach of -Man. Ana yet, to judge from the current market reports, we have a food problem. Take the price of wheat and Hour, potatoes, onions, chaff, oats, maize—what yeu will—everything is "up," and the man with the stationary wage stares blankly at the weekly bills.'

Fruit and Chinamen. It is about fruit, however, that this is written, and yet not that so much as the. manner in which we buy it. There was an ebullition of feeling against the Japanese on tho Pacific Slope a few weeks ago, and in the literature hearing on .the subject it wa3 stated that the timber and the salmon tilling mdustries'had been annexed by tho Japanese. Even .from'this distance it seemed a pity that such big industries, should, in a whito man's country, fall into the hands of. the yellow man, just as the fruit trade has : been captured by the Chinese in Wellington. A Stroll in the Tosvn. Tho yellow creep is gradual, yet suro. The stranger, sees it more .vividly than tho native-born. Ho usually says:—"What a. lot of Chinamen you have here," and then buys a dozen; bananas. Tho writer took the trouble to note the names of the fruit purveyors in the .City proper, during a stroll from Government Buildings on Lainbton Quay to..Veitch and Allan's corner in Cuba Street. Tho high rents in theso streets havo diminished the number. of fruit shops in them, but "John" hangs on" bravely in. the. proportion of three' to one, as far as shops -'.re concerned, and anything between ton and twenty to one as far as numbers go, and the trade of one Chinese shop is at least four times, as great as the trade of one European.. Tricks That are Not in Vain. There he stands—slant-eyed, of immutablo countenance, peeping slyly over the pyramids of polished fruit, or-busy picking-out irom behind those gleaming piles specimens greatly inferior to those that bear the price ticket, which fact tho purchaser docs not, in nine cases out of ten, realise until he gets homo. Between tho window fruit—the show piles, and the rest —observo always a curtain that ■is quito opaque. Observe also that in getting fruit from the window the : curtains aro not' drawn apart, so that the customer may see the fruit ho is getting. Oh, dear, no! John insinuates himself in the slit in the ci.rtains, puts the fruit into tho bag, and emerges' again, holding a. decent specimen in one hand, to be thrown in the bag if the weight is short. If'you.happen to seo that all'is not as it-should bo (at the prico), and. you protest. John docs not meet yon as a rule in a conciliatory spirit. He knows if you go away to the next shop that his brother Ciiiueo will practice the same trick, and this, together with the exponenco which has taught him tnat the white competitor is " not in the hunt," -and that he and his fellowcountrymen aro in command of tho trade, has niado him brazenly' independent. For his deception he might ho arraigned for polling .under falso pretences; and the Factories or Shops' Inspectors, who take every care that employees are provided with all conveniences and clean working rooms, should bo given the power to insist on " John " leading a decently cleanly life while earning his living among a decent, cleanly ipcoplo; ■ ' A Crip on the Tobacco Trade. ' John. Chinaman has a peculiar "pull" ovor the tobacco trade, hut which might.bo cured by the united action of tobacconists of British colour. At present the tobacconists have to close at 8 p.m., and after that hour one cannot obtain tobacco "at. any of tho white- men's shops. But .while the white man is compelled to close, " John" may go on' soiling at . will—toba'ceo, . cigars, cigarettes, and matches, and quite a trade is clone be-, tweon .8 and 10 o'clock each evening.