THE COLOUR LINE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 133, 3 December 1906, Page 7

THE COLOUR LINE.

SIR JOSEPH WARD ON RACIAL ' PURITY. NEW ZEALAND'S FOSITION. A good deal of the Premier's speech at Invercargill on Friday evening was devoted to the alien question as it affects, this country in particular and the Empire in general. Sir Joseph Ward said this would be one of the matters that would come up at the Imperial Conference. The special reporter of the Otago Daily Times reports the Premier to have said that there might be some difficulty in getting a united expression of opinion upon it, but it would be fonnd that one of the greatest perils that the dvvellors in the outlying portions of the Empire in the Southern Seas had to face in the future was the yellow peril, Australia and New Zealand wero within a week or two's journey of a country that was computed to contain 400 millions of people— the Chinese. He did not propose to say a word against them as individuals. They were human beings just as Tfc were, but it was all important that the white inhabitants of Auriralasia should preserve their racial purity. (Applause.) Women were primarily affected by thia question— our girls who were to be thes mothers of our people. To them it waa of the first importance that every effort should bo made to preserve our purity of blood a3 a white race. It must bo remembered in considering this matter that near the borders of China was a nation closely allied, capable of teaching them in warfaro the discipline essential to their success. l'etty differences in the political arena in the Old Land would have to be sunk when it came tv a question of making England realise that Australians and New Zoulanders were determined to preserve their racial purity. (Applause.) It would bo the duty of the representative of Xew Zealand to see that that all-important matter was dißcusi'.-d, and that something practical was done! It was useless talking unless the talk reached some point at which they wore bound to arrive at a fixture. The flag of Britain indicated freedom in thy truest sense of the term, and the flag of New Zealand meant the name. The colony was prepared to allow people under -any flag to come here aa long as they were prepared to comply with the conditions, and could become naturalised citizens. They must have a fair education, and must be nbj o to mid and write in their own language at least. If these conditions were not insisted on the colony would bo threatened with the same state of affairs as that v/hich prevailed in older countries. Aliens. of all classes and descriptions were pouring into America and other countries, some of them unable to sign their names, and they were absolutely dominating tho life of sorno of the cities at the present .moment. It wab the duty of New Zealand to preserve and help its own race while allowing others to come in under proper conditions. While t disclaiming 10 be a jin^oisfc or to believe in jingoism, he Believed in the preservation of the .Empire and the necessity for peoplo in New Zoaland to assist the Motherland to maintain what was so important to the world as a whole.