LOOKING TO N.Z. FOR NEW HOME

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6803, 5 January 1929, Page 5

LOOKING TO N.Z. FOR NEW HOME

BRITISHERS IN CHINA.

Conditions of living for the foreigner in China are becoming unbearable, and it is for this reason that Mr. F. H. Pickwick, an Englishman, who has resided at r -entsin for the past 27 years, has decided to settle in the Dominion. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, ho anived from Sydney by the Maunganui on Monday. Mr Pickwick has resigned his position as Tientsin manager of tho International Savings Society Bank ,which is an institution similar to the New Zealand Savings Banks, with branches throughout China. He visited the Dominion in 1925 on a deep-sea fishing expedition and was so impressed with the country that he returned to China determined to settle here eventually'.

According to Mr. Pickwick, many “foreigners’’ in China are looking towards New Zealand as their future home. “There is a possibility that there will be a settlement of Tientsin ‘foreigners’ at Kcri Keri, in the Bay of Islands,” Mr Pickwick stated. “Tho group settlement scheme advocated in the district has been broadcast in China 'by a prominent resident of Shanghai, who is also well known in New Zealand. Several inquiries have been mado concerning the scheme and some 20 people I know have expressed their intention of coming to New Zealand to'“settle at Keri Keri.” Giving his reasons for leaving China, Mr Pickwick said that in a short timo conditions would be such that life would not bo worth while there. Law an dorder were things of the past in China, and the Chinese themselves were becoming unbearable. The system of taxation was squeezing the life out of them. “It is really pitiful,” Mr. Pickwick added. “Many of my friends are doctors and some of them have worked in China for 30 years, probably saving thousands of lives. When the trouble came they found their houses burned over their heads and the work of a lifetime has been washed completely away. He considered strife in China would never cease. The Chinese now had no loyalty and no gratitude. Perhaps “foreign” governments had made mistakes in allowing China too much freedom, but that could not be helped at this stage. “Tho pity of the position can be realised when people know that Shanghai, tho Chicago of the East, is slowly but surely drifting back to the Chinese,” ho added. “Shanghai once a swamp, was made a city through the energy and enterprise of ‘foreigners,’ and everything seems to be going. Tientsin also 1 is in the same danger.” I