NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13673, 14 February 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

RACE PREJUDICE. Rack prejudice, says the London Times, counts for little so long as the Asiatic is ''merely a coolie doing work for the capitalist which, the white man does not care to undertake, and doing it dirt cheap. That is business. But when the Asiatic becomes storekeeper, commission agent, baker, tailor, shoemaker,-and, 'in fact, anything and everything, making money at them all, then he is hated with an unspeakable hatred, which is- also business. It is most regrettable that he should not remain content with being a coolie, but his ambition is boundless, possibly because we have taught him the absurdity of. the caste system and the perfectibility of man. So he incurs the business hatred. far deeper and more deadly than race hatred, the liaiiie of which it borrows because race hatred can be represented aa an ordinance of. nature, primal, inexorable, and rooted in the order of things. That business hatred is wha> wo have to deal with in all these cases of race difficulty, for there is no race difficulty until it amies. It is a very nasty thing to deal with, very um-easonabie and very stubborn;' but, it is wise to face the real mischief, and nob to go on imagining it to be something that we can coo jure, with the emptg jjhrases

arid the cant about principles that do duty sc effectively in the Mouse 01 Commons and on public platforms. It is a real thing, bounded largely upon unconfeesed fear of the Oriental, whose business capacity is a more recent discover} than his industrial efficiency. People fit Hotn* who do not experience that fear must be careful, at any rat*, not to aggravate difficulties already great by mere abuse of their fellow-countrymen who are in actual contact with Asiatics. "■ If m arc to do any good in the way of averting the Imperial dangers now upon as, and the international complications that may any day arise in a formidable- shape, we must tak the colonies with us in concerting oilr measures. If we want them to pay any heed to the Imperial aspects of the question, wo must certainly show that we can comprehend what to them are the domestic aspects. Ignorant* impatience with Asiatics for doing what Europe has been urging them to do *or a century alternates in this country with ignorant impatience of any colonial dealings with coloured races that do not exactly square with insular prejudice and sent.imenta.lism. Official policy has reflected these two things by turns, so that now, when the peril is acute, our rulers have no coherent views to place before the democracy, and the democracy has none to press upon them.

MINING" IN CHINA. Progress is being made in mining operations in various parts of China, but few details are as yet available. Developments are being mode in Manchuria by the Japanese, but they are still in the preliminary stages. Doubtless the mines, which contain excellent coal, will be developed by the South Manchurian Railway Company, to which they have been by Japan. The output of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company's three mines in the K'ai-p'ing district to the north-east of Tientsin amounted in 1906 to 958,675 tons, against 851,523 tons in 1905. These mines supply the northern railways, steamers, local markets, part of Manchuria, and, to a certain extent, Northern China,' as far as the Yangteze. • The output does not more than keep pace with the demand. The mining qjprations of the Pekin Syndicate, which promised so well at first, seem to have been very unfortunate. The mine at Paishan, in the province of Howan, had been flooded afte. a 14ft seam, of coal had boon pierced, and it has been found necessary to send for increased pumping plant from the United Kingdom. It has boon found, however, that the seam struck was too friable to work, and at a still greater depth another seam 10ft in thickness has been reached, and a fair quantity of good workable coal is now being raised daily. At the Fang-tyn mines in tho province of Shantung, the Shantung Mining Company produced 163.233 tons of coal during 1906, against 134,000 tons in 1905, and of that 23,000 tons were exported. In connection with this mine a washing plant and a briquette factory have been inaugurated. This coal mine is being worked by the Kiangpei Coal and Iron Mining Company hi the province of Ssuchwan. Much time has been lost in making preliminary agreements, but a large mine not far from the port of Chung King, which was already being worked by & British pioneer in conjunction with Chinese, has been secured by the company, the necessary plant has been ordered, and will reach the mine early in 1908, and when the light railway, the construction of which from the mine to the nearest waterway forms part of the concession, has been built, there is ©very hope that the output of this coal, one of the best in China, which finds a good local market, and has been exported down the river many years, will.be largely increased by the use of more (scientific methods.