A VISIT TO THE CHINESE QUARTERS IN SYDNEY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 368, 24 June 1884, Page 5

A VISIT TO THE CHINESE QUARTERS IN SYDNEY.

The following account of a visit of Mr Dibbs to the Chinese quarters in Sydney on a recent evening is con^ densed from the ' Daily Telegraph ' of a late date: — "For some time past the Colonial Treasurer has been very anxious for an opportunity-., of satisfying himself as to ..the. alleged,, wide|« spread use of opium,. not only among Chinese residents in Sydney,but among European ;men and women, who are aaid to be in the habit of visiting Chinese dens ; and spending hours in the practice of opium smoking. Tbje Treasurer and the gentlemen of his party first went to the . lower part (|f Castlereagh Street, near the Hay* market, where a number of Chinese were known to be residing. In nearlyall the rooms at the lower part of Castlereagh Street, and, indeed, in all the other .localities visited, the class of the bed .or bi^nk, occupied by them was a kind of wide shelf, about fiye feet long, and about two ; feet wicjje, and in some cases they were construct ed above each other, like bunks ©n board a . ship, from the floor to the ceiling. In one of the first rooms visited — a room that would ordinarily be considered about large enough for the bedroom of a single Europeanfwere found twenty-five or thiijty Chinamen stacked in these bunks ohe above the other all, round the sides of the room, with no. prpvision for •ventilation, the ..whole place reeking with. that, extraordinary sickly smell peculiar to Chinese quarters. In one of the places the party found four; or five Chinamen who were lolling ;on these shelves, either smoking or preparing to smoke opium, whilst others were lolling about in a state of stolid indifference or partial stupor. In one of these rooms the party saw a very good looking European woman, 22 or 23 years of age, wbo, in answer to inquiries, said that she had just looked in for the washing. This statement was accepied with some doubt, because subsequently they found her hat and shawl stowed away in different parts of the room, evidently indicating that she was at least a temporary inmate of the house. Thia woman was sitting down in the middle of the body of Chinamen, and the dishevelled appearance of her hair indicated that she had also been lying down or sleeping about the place. The party visited another ramshackle building, part of the same structure, and there discovered a gambling hell in full operation. There were Chinese purchasing lottery tickets the chief of the place folding up Chinese characters in a little bit of paper on the middle of a tray, and three other fellows sitting at a table and doing the recording business, also in Chinese characters. The ' boss 'of the place told these fellows to go on with their work and not mind the strangers who were looking on. It transpired that one oi these Chinese gentlemen engaged in this gambling operation had b3en for some time a Chinese interpreter, and had been gaining kudos with the Government by recommending that lotteries should be put down, while here was the gentleman himself engaged in the thick of the whole business. Leaving the gambling house, the party proceeded to another house known to be occupied by Chinese, and passing through the. dark passages, and creeping their way by the aid of a lighted match, through the lower rooms and np the steep staircase, they camejupon another spectacle of Chinese lolling . about on their shelves or cu^bo^ids,

as their beds might be compared to. In this place there was one Chinaman, three European women, and a European man. The Chinaman was lying down with a pipe in his mouth, and alongside him lying across the shelf, was a woman with a cloak thrown over her and with an opium pipe thrown down by her side, evidently having been recently smoking. The oi,ber two women were sitting up, They said they did not smoke, but they were evidently very familiar with the place. They next proceeded to Lower George-streefc, were they passed through a number of Chinese shops where fan-tan was going on, and where not only Chinese, but mtmbeis of Europeans, evidently of the laboring class, were standing at the tables and playing- the game. The party yiassed through these shops into the sleeping apartments, where moie gambling was going on. In nearly every room they found Europeans taking part with the Chinese in gambling. The character of the sleeping accommodation of these people is something horrible to look at. Tiers of bunks about 6ft in length and 2fb in width form the principle sleeping accommodation, and wherever there was a spare piece of . wall ppace, there it seemed a bunk had been fitted up. The passages were utilised in the same way, so that the apartments were absolutely reeking with the stench of d>"rty clothes, dirty fuinif ire, and dirty occupants. Down be'ow in the cellars, again, the spme horrible disease breeding overcrowding is to be witnessed. The inspection was continued through Brown Bear lane to the back of the oM G-allows Hil', also through what is called the Suez Canal, a tortuous rioht^of-way entered from the Argyle Cut, opposite the Argyle Bond, and coming out through a narrow dirty lane into Lower George Street. The sighos witnessed in this quarter were a repetition of tl ose already described, only perhaps very much worse. In these hovels are to be seen Chinamen, European men, and European women — some of the latter having children, some English and some Chinese, in their arms. Some of the women acknowledged themselves to be the wives of Chinamen, others Jdenied any intimacy with them,but they all seemed to live in a state of common degradation. The result of the investigation was to convince Mr Dibbs that opium smoking is not only largely indulged in by Chinese residents of . Sydney, but that a considerable number , of European men, and a still larger number of European women, many of them young girls of tender years, are in the habit of visiting Chinese dens, consorting with Chinese of the lowest class, and cultivating the habit of opium, smoking to a degree that degrades them morally and physically alike."