Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1914. AN INVASION WITHOUT ARMS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 35, 11 February 1914, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1914. AN INVASION WITHOUT ARMS

When lie was Premier, Sir Joseph Ward once obtained much praise by an emphatic profession of a "White New Zealand" policy, and his Government did make a move to justify the glowing words of tho chief, but Mho effort fell short of the people's hope. The Massey Government lounri the " White New Zealand *' scheme exactly as Sir Joseph had left it, and the people can see for themselves the scope for piebald and purple patches on the whiteness. Theoretically a fence, meant to be as exclusive a* the managing directors ol the Imperial firm of "John Bull and Co." will permit, is supposed k> be a satisfactory protectien Asiatics. Wh«t is Uie JBfifit&ds Jftfturl .Bw»j* ft.fefigs.gftfi

through which Indian coolies can enter comfortably, if they are British subjects, as most of these "peaceful invaders" are. As many- a black, brown, or other coloured unit in the times of the Cresars was able to say proudly : "lama Roman citizen," so- many an Asiatic and African is able to declare to-day: "I am a British citizen," and he expects the freedom of the wide Empire. Such men were engaged -for the sugar plantations of Fiji, and from there they migrate to Auckland. .No British subject is liable to poll-tax, and therefore these aliens, after passing the Health Officer and an easy education test, have New Zealand as their home. ■These coloured citizens of the Empire are not now aggressive. Many have become hawkers of various goods, especially fruit. The "peaceful invaders" are ■ using the pleasant ammunition of apples, oranges, pluma, and peaches — and here in the very quietness of their methods lurks a peril, as The Post explained in an article of 17th January last. With such a peace offering as fruit and green things of earth the Chinese firmly established themselves in Wellington, and the yellows slowly worked the great majority of the whites out of business. It is the old truth that the comparatively simple liver (at least on the material side) such as the Chinese can beat the compound liver (whose "necessaries" increase from year to year) in the economic struggle. Cheap coolie labour, proclaimed by the "Randlords" as a boon for South Africa, is proving to be a curse to the general public of Europeans, who had already a serious problem with the native race. The temper of the average New Zealander is strongly against the industrial and social complications which may be inseparable from the admission of considerable numbers of Indians or- other Asiatics. The Government will not have to wait long for evidence of that mood, and therefore the Premier should hasten to make preparations for a needed amendment of the law. Ministers admitted during last session, that action, was necessary, but nothing was done. The Imperial authorities may exert all possiblo influence to have drastic proposals modified, but it is not v likely that they will prevent this country from having a real "White New Zealand" policy, in place of the present defective scheme, which can be a mere mockery of a protective measure.