EVERGREEN CHINESE.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1803, 20 December 1912, Page 6

EVERGREEN CHINESE.

Observers of the Chinese element in our population have noted that •whilst the Immgration Restriction Act of the Commonwealth, passed twelve years ago, makes it practically impossible for the ordinary working Chinaman to enter into Australia, there is an extraordinary absence of signs of advancing age amongst the Chinese who are presumed to have been here already at the time of the passing of the Act. The number of young Chinese, mostly makers of furniture and growers of vegetables, who may be seen is quite in excess of the Chinese who were youths or children here a dozen years ago. Evidence given in a Brisbane police court has thrown some light on the problem. In a prosecution on account of the introduction of prohibited immigrants, it was stated that two aged Chinese who wanted to get back to their own country with the money they had gathered in Australia, were substituted in a ship's crew for a couple of young Chinese who were very anxious to get into this country It is a'j reasonable assumption that somebody made money out of both sets of Chinese by assisting or conniving at the illegal exchange. There is abundant living Celestial evidence that a wide gap is left when Customs officers merely count the number of Chinese members of a ship's crew and declare that all is well if a check count at the time of departure of the vessel gives the «ame total.