FROM BOER TO CHINAMAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 803, 19 January 1903, Page 3

FROM BOER TO CHINAMAN.

LABOR FOR SOUTH AFRICA. By Tolegraph—Press Association —Copyright Received 5 p.m., Jan. 18. Condon, Jan. 18. Tho Spectator suggests that no Chinese should bo imported during tho British trusteeship of the Transvaal, and adds that decision in tho matter would bo better left to tho autonomous Government. OUTSPOKEN COPELAND. VOICES AUSTRALIA'S SENTIMENTS By Telegraph-Press Association—Copyright Received 1.35 a.m., Jan. 19. London, Jan. 18. Mr Copeland, interviewed by the Daily Chronicle, said that ono European miner was worth five Chinese. The action cf the ltund capitalists was contemptiblo. English and Australian workmen helped to save tho mines, and now the owners proposed to hand their legitimate employment to a hordo of Chamberlain consented to the importation it would far outweigh all the good he had ever done, and embitter the wholo of Australia and Canada, and make them avowed enemies of himself and the Imperial policy. 1 WHITE LEAGUE ” ON THE RAND EUROPEANS COMBINE TO CHECK AN ASIATIC MENACE, Johannesburg, Nov. 10. You remember that story of Kipling’s, by name “ Naboth’s Vinoyard ? ” It is going to havo a counterpart on tho Rand, and to end badly for Naboth, who in these days is not at ail the injured person his lineal ancestor is mado out to bo.

Ho goes by tho generic name of “ Sammy ” in South Africa—Lai Ramrny Sammy is tho full title. Ho came hero from India, and has thriven like the sugarcane in tho steamy hollows of Natal. Durban is overrun with him, for ho can

live on sixponeo a week, and save enough money in a year to pay his family’s passage over from .Bombay. Once united under a tin roof tho family grows apace, and boforo the eldest son has reached the dignity of a waist cloth Sammy pere has much money in tho bank, and probably calls regularly for the rent of his many white tenants. INDIAN V. CHINAMAN. There was a sale the other day of choice building sites in Durban. Indians bought the lot, and paid over .£40,000 in cash for the properties. Chinamen bid strongly ; but tho Hindu purse was the deeper, and the yellow men went back to laundry and fruit shop and grocery store to bide their timo. And this is going on all over Natal, which is now known as the black man’s colony. Tho coolie was first introduced by the sugar-planter and coffee-grower, who found him cheap, hardy, and docile. He came across tho ocoan on a contract binding him to three years’ labor in the plantations, and even on his scanty wage he managed to save money. He looked round tho land, and saw that it was good ; so at the ond of his term he set up in business for himself.

His pet “ line ” is hawking fruit. If you go into tho early morning market at Durban or Maritzburg you will see hundreds of copper-skinned, lithe, tur-

baned Indians bargaining for great clusters of bananas, heaps of golden oraDges, luscious pauwpauws, pears, grapes, pineapples, or whatever may be in season. Before breakfast time Sammy has trotted out to the suburbs with his baskets dangling from a bamboo-rod across his shoulders, and you will hear his shrill ory in your garden. He makes about 50 por cent, on all transactions, but ho saves you the worry and hoat of a journey to tho market. Hence he is welcome to the freedom of the stoep. THE WILES OF “ SAMMY.” Still, his ambition goes boyond trotting in tho dust barefooted. By-and-by Smith, who occupies the next office to yours, mentions casually that Sammy has bought tho building; and after this Sammy obtrudes his white blouso and gold threadembroidered skullcap on your notice. Ho ducks out of your way on the stair, but tho sahib at tho registry has his name on the book, and very likely the rent rises a pound a month. “I be poor man, sah 1” Next week he buys another lump of property, and the bank manager is polite to his thriving cliont. Now, the Transvaal is not minded to take this Old Man of the Sea on its shoul-

der3 if it can be helped. This community has seen enough of the Asiatic plague in the sister colonies; it is asking the Government to shut the door against Sammy and Ching-Long and Ah See and all tho rest of the tribe. If the Government will not close tho gate the European, who has to live in this country, means to make Sammy’s sojourn here profitless and un-

ploasant. A SEMI-BARBARIAN INVASION,

The European living in Soutn Atricu i» awako to the positive danger of having these semi-barbarians thrust into the midst of a white population. The coolie’s craft, his greod, his skill at worming himself into the place of money-lendor and giver of credit to thoughtless womonfolk, his unclean ways, his ignorance of sanitation, his supine fatalism, makes him the worst of all possible neighbors. _ He is supremely careless of life ; he will pack his unsold fruit of to-day under a crazy bed reeking with filth, and go forth to sell it to white women and children tomorrow. Therefore the men who know best claim to be heard. Theso Transvaalers will not have the Asiatic and his diseases, physical and moral. Exeter Hall may not like the “ inequality of treatment towards fellowsubjects.” It does not have to live next door to Sammy. It thus comes about that the traders and residents all along thereof from Boksburg to Krugcrsdorp have formed “ The White League,” the first principle of whioh is—No member shall let, lease, or sell any shop, house, or ground to any Asiatie. They are afraid of an influx of these undesirables. Not afraid in the ordinary i sense, bocause the colonist is able to deal with either the aboriginal Kaffir or the imported colored person with his own right arm, if need be. But- they fear the effects of a twisted sontimentalism in Great Britain. ‘'straight talk.” It sounds so easy to say, “ Oh, give tho Indians equal rights in tho new oolonies. After all, they ar3 subjects of the King. That fatal “ After all! ” The White League is raising an insistent cry against the flooding o£ this country with tho undesirable Hindu. Should ho be admitted “ on masse ” tho loaguojdemand that he bo segregated as is the Kaffiir, and forced to live in a separate location, not allowed to , squat in his native squalor among selfretpecting Europeans. Any squoamishness on the part of our Government prompted by humanitarian M.P.’s at . Lome will be bitterly resented by every I white man on the Band. We have had a sample of irresponsible legislation in the new liquor ordinance; thoro will bo : angry protests, perhaps more, if tho obnoxious Asiatic be let loose on the country because ignorant people in the United ) Kingdom prato about “ equal rights.” A well-known South African author - once wrote wisely about tho “ fundai mental axiom ’’—the argument of schoolI men that tho black man is every whit the i. equal of And this author put it tersely : “ Ask tho man who upholds u this doctrine whether ho would allow his daughter to marry a Kaffir.” Tho point e is of interest to the equal-rigbts section, n So, when anyone asks tho colonist, “ Do h you wish to have coolies and Chinamen c ~ living next door to you, undermining your II business, your health, and tho decency of 0 your children ?” there is but one reply : e >• No ! a thousand times no 1 If I had e my way I would fling the Asiatio over ttie border, but if he comes in by leave of the ’ Government I will take care that he is kept in his right place.” } And that right place is among his own Vj race and colour. We bore seo tho sore i, growing worse every day. Wero the Transvaal polled on the question the ' colony would be ring-fenced against the es Asiatic. That is plain talk, but we are a in candid people, and we shall bo very outm spoken when tho time cotnes for us to manage pur own business,