The Globe. FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1522, 3 January 1879, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1879.

There seems to bo quite a scare in some parts of New Zealand just now iu reference to what is generally known as the Chinese question. At least, the capital of the colony is evidently ablaze with anti-Chinese agitation, and during the last few weeks popular feeling there has evidently been wrought to a boiling point as to what should or should not be done towards preventing an invasion of those islands by the Mongolian host. Looking at this subject from a purely Now Zealand point of view, the unprejudiced mind may naturally conclude that a good deal too much perhaps, is being made of any likelihood of danger to the social and commercial well-being of the community, accruing from our intercourse with the children of the Celestial Empire, feo far, tho iutlux of Cinnamon upon our shores may bo said to have been productive of more good than of evil. Tho only part of tho colony where they have shown in numbers is Otago; and police as well as other official records have disclosed the fact that in that Provincial District they have not given any cause to make people regret their advent. Easily controlled, generally well disposed and peaceable, these celestials have invariably cast their lots in places and under circumstances where the European laborer would not ho found. In fact tho representatives of the yellow race,located down south,have only secured tho leavings of tho white men, working whore tho latter would not work, and developing industries which would not otherwise have been touched. In the Otago Goldfields especially have their labours been appreciated where exhausted ground, under the steady manipulation of Inc patient and thrifty Chinese, was rendered reproductive. Hero, in Canterbury, it can scarcely bo said that Chinamen have proved a yuisauQs, Certainly tlioy ni'Q uot

in largo numbers, but it is a matter of notoriety that each Mongolian has apparently taken his place, in a quiet and contented manner, in our colonial beehive, and that none has shown himself a useless drone. Notwithstanding the good character which wo aro bound to give those few with whom wo have boon made acquainted, wo must, however, admit that the consideration of the Chinese question should bo carried much further, and that there aro other issues of very largo magnitude which colonists may bo called to settle at a not very remote period. And so it would appear our Wellington neighbors seem to think. Tho anti-Chinese agitation now fermenting on the shores of Cook Straits originated evidently with tho movement stated in Sydney some time since when a number of hands employed by tho Australian Steam Navigation Company struck work owing to tho Chinese element being too abundantly introduced by tho company in their licet. How it came to pass that tho Wellington people so suddenly took up tho cudgels on behalf of the Sydney strikers, while elsewhere in tho colony, where Chinamen aro far more numerous, this Australian struggle was witnessed in silence, would bo difficult to explain. Lot that bo, however, as it may, certain it is that tho anti-Chinese fever has sot in vigorously in the Empire City, and that it bids fair to have some considerable weight in j causing a feeling of antagonism to tho race to be developed throughout New Zealand. Meetings more or loss influentially attended have been hold, resolutions passed, and a most formidable petition to tho Legislature, adopted and signed by tho majority of the population. Tho Ministry, wo find —at least one of its loading members, the Colonial Treasurer, Mr. Ballauce —has actually taken a loading part in tho movement. At one of those meetings a letter was read from that gentleman, strongly impregnated with sympathy for tho views hold by the antiChinese agitators, couched in terms such as to leave no doubt that tho Government will, next session, bring some kind of legislative pressure to bear in the way of legalising a poll-tax upon the almondeyed disciples of Confucius desirous to emigrate hero. Probably Mr. Ballauce was more actuated by a desire of acquiring cheap popularity, than by the feeling that he might assist his chief, the Premier, in ministering to the wants of the human race,” when he thus caught the popular feather promiscuously floating in the air, and stuck it into his Ministerial cap. Who can blame him ; drowning men catch at straws, and the smallest straw indeed is greedily seized at tho present moment, by tho members of a Cabinet whoso days will soon be numbered. Yet it cannot be disputed that it behoves the New Zealand colonist to look ahead, and that when considering this Chinese question, it would bo unwise to follow' the dictum which lays it down that sufficient for tho day is the evil thereof, Somes of tho States of America have long been sadly convulsed by the troubles which a wholesale importation of Chinese blood have developed there. And in many parts of Australia tho same lamentable state of things is becoming every day more painfully visible. Useful and certainly harmless, from a Utopian point of view, as the Chinese may be said to be, it must bo conceded that w T hou the time comes when they overrun the land, their ravages —unconsciously—aro as those of the traditional locusts; in point of labor, tho Chinaman’s cheapness is x - elatlve and not finally absolute. Y bile ho works on less wages and spends loss for his keep than the average European, when once competition is destroyed by the influx of a vast number, John very soon increases his price, so that in tho long run large communities gain nothing by the temporary “ cheap labor.” And whenever tho Mongolians move on a particular point, they do so in force. They press forward, slowly but surely, with tho resistlessuoss of fate. Wo are not in any way seized with any spasms of “ Chiuo- “ phobia,” nor do wo think that tho time has arrived wdien cast-iron measures should bo devised with a view of pitching every Chinaman lauding here into the sea. But wo feel that tho old adage might well and practically apply to this Chinese question —“A stitch in time saves nine.” It would perhaps bo wise for tho Legislature to weigh tho matter well and see what could bo devised towards preventing this fair colony of New Zealand from being overrun by a semi-barbaric race.