The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1905. ALIEN IMMIGRATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13890, 26 October 1905, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1905. ALIEN IMMIGRATION.

Attstp.aixa (has been subjected 1 to much. misrepresentation in iregarxl to her policy toft'arda aliens, but tor persistence is oompeJlmg the critics to examine the «iotuial position for tihismseLLT.es. It is all very well for Sir Gilbert Parker and the other l friemda of the Chinese slavery policy to dodare that Australia cannot get (along without ocolde labour, and that the exclusion policy is mere braxen selfishness j but every impaintial man must see for himsolf that there ia more than selfishness at the back of the Australian attitude. The “Times” makes tiro barest possible admission whan it say® that a laksez faire policy in regard to the immigration of coloured aliens would make Australia the homo of a, preponderating yellow and brown population. There is no country peopled by Europeans within reach of Asia that pormite the unrestricted 1 entrance of Asiatic traces. Even the Philippines are being dosed now to the Chinese.' The bars one up caw the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States, and if the Chinese should rshovv a tendency to nettle in the South American (republics, thcea SteteG, too, will be compelled to doi?o their doors. Australia is bound to exclude the Asialio, in self-defence. Unrestricted immigration might give her an abundance of cheap labour, and might hasten her development, but the advocates of Chinese and Kanaka immigration do hot pause to consider the price tiilat would have to be paid for cheap production. Selfishness would surely lead the Australians to accept, black labour, not to exclude It. The working man m thinking Jess of his own billet than of tiro future of his race and Iris country, and ho should be given credit for his Perhaps he realises the, possibilities only in a vugu'e way. He

knows that the Ghinamain i& an nhwelcome neighbour, with a tendency to crowd into tenements—'we have seen the tendency in New Zealand—to congregate in “quarters” of tihe cities, and to labour under conditions endurable by no white man. He introduces social evils of his own wherever he goes. In numbers hie would create in Australia such another problem as fine Southern States have raised in America with the Aegro. Occasionally man who have Jived in China tell us that Australians are prone to Blander the whole race of Chinese without any knowledge of the tin© qualities that educated Chinese possess. The difficulty is that the educated Chinese for the moat part stay, at home. The ©migrants whom we know in Australia and New Zealand are almost entirely Cantonese, and not a particularly high or desirable class at that. If tihe case is to be restated, as Mr Dcakin (has suggested, it will not be with any intention of relaxing the restrictions on, tlx© admission of Chinese. We admit that the position in regard to the Japanese must be reviewed carefully, but even in this respect the Imperial Government will find tihe Australians as a whole strongly averse to the entire removal of the disabilities. It may be an unreasoning prejudice that groups the Japanese with the other Asiatic races, but the prejudice exists, and Will have to he taken into account. Australia is not in a hurry to be exploited for the benefit of the great capitalists. There are no Band millionaires in tiro Commonwealth to have the country given over to them, and the people, happily, have the power tb say whether or not their cbuiutay shall bo kept “whits,” and to see that their wishes are carried' out. They must feel their way slowly, and probably the argument that has appealed most strongly to them in support of the white Australia polioy is the simple truth that the yellow and black ra'oee can be admitted at any time, but once admitted they will be al permanent institution.