The Feilding Guardian. WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879. CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 19, 23 July 1879, Page 2

The Feilding Guardian.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879. CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

“ J fttn in the place where I am deman Jed of u oouocien je to speuk tile truth, and, therefore I speoV, it whoso list.”

—iv \ At last a in tU TT t r.o ■ , vut> 1 '"is Coiony, and we iS«T certain thr.; it will be hailed witji Height by every person who has the interest a.id weffare of New Zealand irt heait. The Bill provider that a poll tax shall be levied on Chinese immigrants, and proper precautions 1 ard'emboclicd in the Bill to make the ship-masters liable for the penalties imposed in the event of the immigrants not being able to pay them. This will have the effect of checking in a great measure the influx of the “ Heathen Chinee ” to our shores. The matter has for years past exercised the ruinde of at least two-thirds cE the colonists of this country, and ev.ery endeavour has been made to introduce a measure into Parliament to ileal with what is now familiarly known as the “ Chinese scourge/' It has certainly been argued by some philanthropists that there is no necessity for such a law, as there is not the slightest danger of any large influx of the Chinese. But past experience teaches us that there is danger—-and a very great one too,— and unless stringent measures are adopted to guard against it the consequences will be too serious to contemplate. At the present time a number of towns in America are infested with these people, and the “yellow agony ’’ lias brought desolation, ruin, anil misery wherever it has been allowed to introduce itself unchecked. It is only natural to suppose that in a country like China where the population is denser than that ol any other portion of the world, and where the people are poverty stricken, that they are over on the look-out for some new country to swarm into, and introduce a plague far worse than even small-pox or cholez'a. As another instance of the time bo r iiT'V.'hich they floc| to a new couatry might be mentioned 1 hat of QueenslamCi|he whole of north-eastern portioafdf Which is now exclusively occflpied by Chinese. The Bill was read for the first time on Wednesday last and we are only reiterating the sentiments of a large proportion of the inhabitants of this country when wo say that it is to be earnestly hoped that the Bill will become law. If the Chinese are permitted to come into this country indiscriminately it means ruin and desolati m to thousands of* men, women and children of the working classes. 1 i he Wellington Chronicle in dealing with the subject says “ were they to 1 flock hither as they have done to Cali- ! forma, ti e people, stung to madness [ by the misery the intruders produced, ] would rise en mane and insist on the c ieportation of every Chinaman in the * I

land, f'hia would be a desperate remedy But desperate diseases need desperate remedies. Surely prevention is better than cure. Surely it would be better to take such precautions as would effectually guard against an influx of Chinese than to have by-and-by to expel them by force from the country. New Zealand belongs' of right to Me British race. They came here and conquered the land from wilderness. The British colonists have spent their lives and fortunes in building up homes for themselves and their children here. And shall anyone, on the plea of sham humanity, dare to assert that they have not the right to guard the homes which they have bought so dearly Out upon such ! atrocious clap trap! We have no patience with such unspeakable baldcr--1 lash. Self-preservatUa, io the first . law of nature. Charity begins at home. No one would deny that the people of New Zealand would, be justified in defending themßeWes f against an invading army. But we emphatically deolare that the conquest

of a country by a civilised foe would not be nearly so dreadful a calamity as the ruin of her industrial classes through the influx of myriads of Chinese. The national disease of the (minese is leprosy, the most hideous, the most loathsome disease with which humanity is cursed. ” Independently of the introduction of leprosy, the immigration of these people would have a baneful effect on the morals and industrial pursuits of the inhabitants of the Colony os a whole. Every description of trade and business would be swamped by them, and the fair land where once happiness and plenty reigned supreme would become a hotbed of vice, misery, and desolation. The article wo have already referred to thus forcibly concludes;—“The plutocracy ltd the ! landocracy would dearly like tb see an I immigration of Chinese, for that would mean to them the obtaining of laborers at rates of wages on which Europeans with wives and families tc support would have to starve Though the land monopolists and the men o big money-bags are very powerful their power will melt like dew in th< mnriling sun if the mighty band o t toilers of all classes unite as om man to carry out the principles of th< great battle cry, ‘The not come !’ ”