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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5216, 10 May 1888, Page 2

The .Timaru Herald makes the following pertinent remarks anent tho Chinese question :—Tho Cliinese by tho Te Anau should be allowed to land if it is their legal right to do so, Tho Government should protect them in their right, in spite of the resolutions of a mn ss meeting and thopusillanimous telegrams of tho Mayor of Invercargill and the member for Awarua. In 1881 the New Zealand legislature passed tho Chinese Immigrants Act. It provides for a £10 poll tax on each Chinese immigrant, and imposes a heavy penalty on the owner, charterer, or master of every vessel arriving at any New Zealand port, if the number of Chinese passengers excoeds one to every ten tons of tho vessel's registered tonnage. Tho poll tax is to bo paid by tho master of the vessel before she is allowed to be entored. If, in the caso of the Te Anau, the legal couditions be complied with, it will be disgraceful to stop the landing, and all who attempt to resist it should be severely punished. Several days ago the Premier intimated to the authorities at tho Bluff that the lavy woidd have to bo strictly enforced. AYe sincerely trust that for his own credit and the credit of the colony he will adhere to his first intention. To pander to a popular outcry that tho law shall ho broken would be utterly discreditable, ovon though mayors and members of Parliament aro not ashamed to join in tho din. AYe notice that the Chiueso ambassador in London is asking some very awkward questions with regard to the poll-tax on Chinese entering tho Australasian colonies, It will not simplify matters that somo of the colonial Governments are not content to abide by tho legislation of their own Parliaments but are straining or breaking the law in order that the Chinese may be kept out. Supposing the Chinese Government were to retaliate and stop Englishmen from landing in China, it would not be long before British men-of-war appeured on tho scene, and unless immediate redress wero given, accompanied by amplo apologies and payment of damages, there would bo a beating to eraarters and a smart bombardment.