The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1890.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5911, 16 August 1890, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1890.

Wkllinqton telegrams informed us tho other day thai an attempt was being made to set up a boycott against, the Chinese storekeepers and market gardeners. Tho news seems to confirm tho opinion expressed by Mr Gladstone recently, that the colonists of Australia were more afraid of the virtues of Chinamen than they were of their vices. The Chinese shopkeepers at the Empire City undersell their colonial neighbors; they thrive on small profits, quick returns, and no credit. The Mongolian does not patronise tho Bankruptcy Court, finds no employment for tho Official Assignee, and does not compound his debts periodically to get the better of the tradesman who pays twenty shillings in tho pound. From all of which it may bo seen from a commercial point of view that the Chinaman is a most objectionable individual. It is a funny thing that the crusade preached against the immigrant from the Flowery Land generally finds its strongest supporters amongst tho working classes, as though it was to their interest to buy goods in tho dearest shops. People who have some knowledge of domestic economy know well enough that higher prices have to be charged to compensate for the bad debts made under the credit system, and therefore they deal in preference whore cash is insisted upon. Tho hatred shown towards tho Chinese in theso colonies ha_ as much reason in it us the Jmlen-ht-.e displayed on the Continent of Europe. Dr. Watts, in one of his Christian-inspired hymns, does not, like the Pharisee, thank God that he was not as other men, but says : —

1 thank the Lord I was not born

_. Heathen or a Jew. —Well, in these colonies, there is no particular prejudico against a heathen, provided he is not a Chinaman, and in a Jew a few years ago New Zealand placed the whole of its confidence. No one stood higher in popular estimation than Sir Julius \ogel, and in pretty nearly every town in this colony Jews are found occupying publio positions of trust and honor. The hatred of tho race in Europe is as astonishing to us iv this part of the world as our hatred of the Chinese is unaccountable to the European. Tho nnti-S emitie feeling in Russia, Germany, and France is so strong that the Jews aro subjected in some parts of those countries to persecutions us cruelly heartless as anything to which they had to submit during tho Middle Ages. It is not so long ago, indeed, since at Leipsic the " Chnstians" successfully protested against tho setting up of a stained-glass window in \ tho Church of St. Thomas in that city to the memory of Mendelssohn. The great composer had been a Jew, and tho genius that belongs to no creed, and yet enriched church services, was not allowed recognition in the temple of the, Christian. And yet the apostle after whom the church was named was a Jew, and the Saviour in whom the Leipsicers believe was a Jew ! The hatred that can thus bo shown to the dead must needs have its counterpart towards tho living. During the present century persecutions of tho Jews have been frequent ou the Continent. Tho same thing is going on to-day iv Russia, and although the Czar's Government may deuy that there has been any recant edict against tho " Chosen People," it knows that tho national intolerance of thorn requires no stimulus. This intolerance is so tierce aud so utterly unreasonable that on many occasions troops have to step between tho persecutors and the persecuted. The Jews have been drivcu from house and home, and those who have been worth anything have been stripped of their all—their possessions and their honor. Tho rich Jews in Russia used to be, aud perhaps they aro now, falsely accused of .rimes in order that their wealth might be confiscated, and they themselves banished to Siberia. Within this very week our ttUlogranis have told ua that in consequence

of the outbreak of persecution thousands of Jews are finding refuge in Algeria,*'and. seeking a, new homeiu South America. We venture to think there was not a colonial who did not experience a feeling of indignation on reading those cablegrams, and yet, perhaps, without a second thought he would skim ove" the telegram that told of colonial barbarism almost equal to that of the towards the inoffensive Chineae shopkeepers of Wellington.