MARKET GARDENING

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1937, Page 12

MARKET GARDENING

CHINESE v. WHITES

VANCOUVER, March 17.

A serious situation has arisen between the white and Chinese, growers of vegetables in British Columbia, arising out of the Privy Council havingdeclared the Dominion Marketing Act ultra vires. ~, while British Columbia was actively administering the Act, under provincial enabling legislation. A series of incidents led to clashes, in which white farmers, aided by officials of the Marketing Board, picket bridges over the Fraser River, leading to Vancouver, to halt truckloads of Chinese vegetables, which do not carry the official tag. When the Privy Council handed down its judgment, Chinese growers appealed successfully to the Courts for a return of thousands of dollars that had been levied on their produce under the marketing law. Provincial officials are held liable, personally, for the return of this money, and are demanding that the Dominion Government should .indemnify them, as they were operating under the Federal statute. The Government at Ottawa, which is Liberal, does not contemplate indemnifying' activities under a law passed by the Conservative regime, to -which they objected, and which they opposed. Mass meetings of white growers are now being held to demand that a'Federal Royal Commission should investigate the social and economic status of the Oriental in British Columbia, and that the white man’s law be respected. They allege that Chinese are bootlegging potatoes to the open market. The Provincial Government backs up the charge, and has appointed several more inspectors to assist in picketing the bridges. Of white growers registered under the Act, 70 per-cent, own the land they work; of Chinese growers, only 5 per cent, are owners. Incredible as may seem, the white growers get*' higher yields, because of improved methods of cultivation and field crop management. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the city housewife prefers Chinesegrown vegetables because other things being equal, they are cheaper. The Chinese are employed by wholesalers of their own nationality in Vancouver, the "family affection” system entering largely into the terms of their employment. They live in hovels and make little attempt to improve them. CONTROL OF WHOLESALE TRADE The shadow of Oriental domination has fallen heavily over the wholesale trade. There are forty Chinese wholesale produce houses, which are strongenough to dictate terms to their white competitors, and which control two hundred retail establishments, all manned by Chinese. These retail stores are more attractive in appearance, and display a better quality of vegetables. One Chinese wholesale house handles more potatoes than all its competitors combined. Its activities ramify outward to every sizeable community in the province. An intricate and clever system of financing pervades the, whole business of vegetable marketing by Chinese operators. There are unlimited “cousins” to be met with in any attempt to understand it. For instance, fertiliser is supplied, in lieu of an advance on the crop. Payments to individual producers are not made through the Marketing Board, as in the case of the white growers, the assumption being that ‘the Chinese wholesaler is not anxious to let the producer know what his crop is worth at market prices.! Quotas fixed by the board for one Chinese grower have been “borrowed”! by a Chinese wholesaler; in one case,’ a wholesaler-grower used his own quota and "borroweil" those of five other Chinese growers. The Marketing Board wrings its hands in impotence when it endeavours .to trace the quotas to their ultimate destination. That the white growers are aroused is shown by their changed attitude towards the Chinese. Gone are the old. humorous, good-natured references to John Chinaman: in their place is an openly-expressed determination that the white man's law is paramount. The Chinese, advised by clever lawyers, are gambling—and it appears to be a safe gamble—that the Privy Council will treat the provincial legislation as it did the Dominion law. in either case, the situation, at the moment, is apt. to lead to a serious clash between the opposing forces.