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Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5575, 4 January 1879, Page 4

The extremely unseemly and brutal exhibition made at Wellington on. Thursday is a disgrace to the Colony. These Wellington roughs seem to locgefc that there is a limit to everything, even to an Anti-Chinese agitation. " One argument against the Chinese is that they are barbarous and uncivilised, hut that is not a reason why they should he treated in a barbarous and uncivilised manner. On reading the narrative of this outrage one thinks of the accounts of the early travels in the interior of the Chinese Empire. The hatred of the inhabitants in some of the towns for foreigners is well known; we all remember how they show their objection to the “foreigndevils,” old stories of murder and bloodshed from this cause are not rare. We, who phone ourselves upon our superior civilisation have been accustomed to put these practices down to ignorance and a debasedly conservative heathenism. But if the treatment of the Chinese strangers in. oar cities is to be like that with which the roughs in Wellington followed np the cry of “ down with the Chinese," it will be absurd to talk of barbarous debasement. A section of the European population of this country is showing its determination to descend to what it considers the Chinese level as quickly as possible. It forgets that this kind of thing Is the best answer to the argument founded upon the uncivilised habits of the Chinamen. If, in short, the Celestial is degraded and brutal, that is the very reason why he should come and take np his abode in a country where degraded and brutal people live. It matters little that the degraded habits cl which he is accused are not of the same nature as those of his persecutors. The argument is that the high principled European should be protected from contamination at the hands of the unprincipled Oriental If the European is bent on proving himself highly brutal what becomes of the' necessity for protecting his morals ? As an outrage this Wellington demonstration is without palliation. It is moreover unaccountable, from whatever point of view it may be considered. If the Chinese were swarming throughoat the Colony, generally acting the part of locusts to the interests of the labouring population, a demonstration of force would be a thing easy to understand. And it would be so also if the Chinese had come in spite of popular protest, and forced themselves in great numbers on an unwilling country, or if they had distinguished themselves by a series of barbarous outrages. But they are few in number—more especially in the Wellington Province, the scene of this moat unprovoked attack—and inoffensive in demeanour. They came to the country with the consent of the authorities, and were encouraged after their arrival. It is monstrous that a seamen’s strike in a neighbouring Colony should be taken as an excuse for maltreating them now. An agitation had been begun against Chinese immigration, it was slowly spreading throughout the cooniry,and was not opposed but rather encouraged by the Government. The employment of, popular force was olearly unnecessary, yet we hear of two wretched Chinamen being attacked while inoffensively working on a wharf in one of the principal seaports of the Colony, and compelled to take refuge in the nearest house that could give shelter, from whence their rescue at the hands of the police became necessary.

Wo can understand anti-CUmoee acitation, but not a Chinese scaro that producing a brutal result like this. It is not necessary to repeat the reasons for our conviction that this fine Colony would be better without the Chinese element in its population. Many no doubt share this, conviction, and wo hope the number is equally numerous who cherish another and a much stronger conviction, viz., that law and order must bo maintained at all hazards m the community. That Magistrate who dealt with sundry New Year’s pay rioters the other day in Punedln F pnt

i rtise exactly when ho said,—“ If f<4»»cn are allowed to come horo, fheToToat be protected from low like else.” If the pnbho no not like the Chinamen they must remember chat they are hero by consent, and that the laws protect them from violence. TOere we constitutional means lor restricting the immigration of Chum> men. which are likely to he far more effectual than any erratic proceedings of misguided people who choose to take into their own hands what they imagine to be the law. Such people •.11 be apt to reply that their seal n mStitade of sins. They forget that tllc ir conduct is merely plymg mho tie tod. of tom • h » *«* ..-top labeor « «m Uun» » -»loS»ti«i <“• *°T* oat . ot tomi W« rcp«l*»' *•* conrtitn. Utol mean. .niW* tor «ertmg the aril of . ™.°«e of Chinamen i» effectual. Whether or not Imperial interests be m the wny, the people of the Colony have only to say tW those moans must be uaed and they will at once be employed. r Q the mean rime there w not the slightest necessity for any rowdyism, !l rowdyism could ever be excused by necessity- which it cannot, and which ought to be put down by the strong The outrage in Wellington does not, ly thc-way, appear to have pro* ftneed say other results than the escape ot the victims. We read that the crowd w»s several limes dispersed, but *c nwd of no arrests.