The Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 210, 6 November 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1866.

A new sensation was caused hi Nelson yesterday by the presence of a number of Chinamen, between one and two hundred of whom, it is said, had come from -Sydney, bound for the Southern part of this island. After discussing the question with considerable vivacity and vehemence, the good people of Otago came to the conclusion that it was desirably to induce the Chinese to immigrate there, in order to fill the vacancies caused by the departure of a large proportion of the mining population to the West Coast gold-fields. The Chinese have been fairly tried in the Australian colonies, and opinion is divided as to whether they are eligible or ineligible colonists, according to the point of view, commercial or social, takeu by the various disputants. Politiciaus and merchants contend that as population is the sourceof wealth we cannot have too mauy people on -•• the ground, of whatever nation. The Chinese by their industry and labor develop the resources of the country they are in, and by cousumiug the necessaries of life ou a large scale, become valuable contributors to the public revenue. Tlvs is the feeling universally acted on in the United States, where every inducement is held out to foreigners to settle ou the soil, the result of which is the increase of the nation in numbers, wealth, and political importance in a ratio that has seldom been witnessed in. the history of the world. On the other hand it is argued that, the Chinese are not desirable colonists, because they are filthy in their habits, lax in their moials, and Pagans in ' their religion. If the country they adopt gains by their industry and labor, it loses by the presence of a heathen element in the midst of its population, diffusing its baleful inlluence throughout our uuaggressive ClirJj'tiauit.y, and diminishing, the probabilities of social and moral progress. It is not easy to see how the people of Otago will get their lands cultivated or their mines worked, unless they can iuduce some kind- of immigrants to settle among them. The attractions of the West Coast Gold-fields may bo expected to continue for .some time longer, in the mean time the mining interest will languish for want of a proper supply of labor. The province has not the means to tempt the European population to emigrate, and it can scarcely be blamed in its extremity for hailing the disciples of Confucius to give them the benefit of their laborious industry. The industry of the Chinese has passed into a proverb, and the story of the old woman who. was found in the act of sharpening a crowbar till it became a needle, is no caricature of the plodding hidustry of the Mongolian race. Otago with its fourteen millions of acres of wastelands and its auriferous country, which has alway yielded a greater iucome per man, per annum, than the average of the Victorian Gold-fields, must not remain unoccupied because a rich gold-field has sprung up iii an adjoining province, and a class of modern sentimentalists refuse to allow the Chinese to come betweir the wind and their nobility. That the inhabitants of the flowerylaud are laborious to a proverb, economical; and orderly, no one can deny. They work old patches of land which the Europeans have abandoned ; are familiar with the most improved modes of . cultivation ;• are quite adepts in the art of irrigation and the economy of manures, ou the adoption of which successful husbandry so "much depends; aud are useful in a country as much on accouut of their ability to develop its mines, as of lending their aid in all agricultural improvements. •, We cannot see on what grounds except upon social aud moral, ones, the presence of the Chinese can be affirmed to-be productive of evil, and if these are carefully examined, the objections lose their power. They live : in ;. communities,;. and give .'the ; Government, very little trouble, a couple of policemen

being, sufficient to keep a whole camp. "in order. It is alleged that they are I greatly addicted to thieving, to which it may.:ba replied that an English Christian population furnishes as great a proportion of _ criminals, as these benighted heathens. They are great gamblers, and indulge in avice for. which their moral code furnishes no prohibition ; we wish we could 3:iy that this detestable vice was ignored by the educated arid refined society, whose morality is takeu from the most perfect standard and whose faith is inspired from the purest source. The aails of proselytising Englaud.used to resound witli. acclamations when it was proposed to evan-, gelise the heathen. Has our religion so. deteriorated by its transplantation to the colonies, that it cannot bear to come in contact' with a few hundreds of the devotees of Budhu and Confucius ? If it were the vital, aggressive, all-pervading power it was onco assumed to be, the presence of the heathen would be regarded as a motive for 'action' and a call to duty, rather than a source of danger or a cause for alarm. We do not suppose that the Chinese will find their way to Otago in any great numbers, nor do we think the climate will suit them if they did. It struck us that the few we saw yesterday represent a most interesting race, steeped in moral degradation it is true, but presenting the spectacle of a noble humanity in ruins, and whilst displaying vices that inspire disgust,- mani>- • festing the virtues of .patience, frugality, and perseverance, which many of those. taught in a nobler school than theirs j would do well toimitate.