CHINESE LABOUR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1911, 2 March 1870, Page 6

CHINESE LABOUR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

To the Editor of the Herald. Sir, —It is to me a matter of great surprise that none of tho journals of the Province, or so far as I know of the Colony, have ever drawn public attention to the remedy for the chronic dearth and dearness of labour, which is oblainable by the importation of Chinese. I can only account for this by supposing that the subject is not well understood, or that its unpopularity among the masses is such as to operate to dt-ler from its advocacy those to whom popularity is an object. It will be admitted that there eau be no obstacle so fatal to the progress of a young and poor community as that of high priced labour, and if this operate in countries such as California and the Australian colonies, which have to a great extent natural capabilities of development with a minimum of labour, how much more must it do so in this country, where not the smallest article of consumption or export can be produced, excepv jjy a very largo expenditure of labour, both dire**. and as represented by the artificial aids which a. c average poverty of the soil renders neccssav, stimulate production. It ia and 1 with truth, that without Chinese labonr, c - of California, at this day perhaps the OU3 aud progressive community on the eiu ~>3 slu .f, lcej would have advanced but htiile bey., .j condition of a mere mining district. 15y of these people, and latterly of Japanese, in many respects their superiors, private enterprise luw been facilitated, and largo public works enabled to be undertaken and carried out, -which without their aid would scarcely have been dreamed of—the Great Pacific Railway to wit. In this countiy public works, to any useful extent, are a hopelesß impossibility ; it is equally hopeless for us to attempt to grow our own cereals at a price to compete with more favoured countries. In California, wheat can be grown and har vested at Is. per bushel; but, there is one industry peculiarly our own, I mean that of flax-dressing now in course of development, which requires labor of a moro careful and

' clieaper class than that to -which -we are accustomed. Flax at present promises great tilings, but will, T. fear, in many parts of tin country be bcfiri" long greatly restricted by scarcity of the natural supplies of raw material, great quantities of which must be destroyed by the slashing careless way in which the leaf is cut;. In every process of cultivation and preparation for market of this plant, I will back Chinese labor us superior to any other, pi.icnt, curfiful and methodical. John will not perhaps po over so much ground or cut so m-niv cwts. of loaf per diem as his competitor, but what he does will be done well and carefully, without waste or unnecessary destruction.

There is, moreover, anothor phase of the question to my mind of even more importance to the country than the development of its resources, and w" * h i-. on\y fully apparent to the settlor in a remote district, X mean the state of the domestic labor market. You sir,living in town, are no doubt well acquainted with the miseries of tho Jservant-galism of the period, but fully to appreciate the evils of tho present state of things, you must live as I do, where you will see gently-nurtured women becoino prematurely old by painful drudgery, socially isolated from sheer want of time and strength to visit and receive one another; and mot-.' iver note the effect of the picture upon their bachelor neighbour, who rsther than expose the woman he might make his wife to a similar fate, prefers to vegetate in single blessedness. The advent, of John Chinaman would soon change all this : catch him young, and put him under good ,\iining, and there is no better domestic than John —cook, waiter, washerman; I have seen him do all to admiration. I began, intending to write a few lines, and this letter lias, I fear, grown unreasonably 10-'g; my object is to have the matter discussed, and will not anticipate the sto.'k objections, but. conclude with a practical proposition : let a number of employers of labor join in importing a cargo of Chinamen, each undertaking to employ a certain number, and advancing the funds needed for heir introduction. There are doubtless 111 a y mercantile house.? in the different Chinese p. t?, any one of which would undertake the selection of the emigrants ; this bv way of a beginning. It, however, tho results"l have hint m 1 at nro to be attained, it m'ist be by means of a Government organisation, managed on the principle of the private association I have suggested.—l am, &c., A Settler, Auckland, Feb. 28, IS7O.