CHINESE SETTLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19918, 11 April 1928, Page 10

CHINESE SETTLERS.

POSITION IN DOMINION.

TWO POLITICAL GROUPS.

DAIRY FACTORY PIONEER. For tlio prosaic matter-of-fact West there is always something of glamour and of mystery about the East; and even when the East is represented onJy by a group of Chinese one can scarcely help being interested. From what homes have they come ? What induced them to venture so far to this alien lknd ? Under what kind of conditions do they live here ? Will they stay or return to their native land ?

In Auckland, while there are about 600 Chinese living in the city, there is properly speaking no Chinese quarter. The nearest approach to it is in Grey's Avenue, where there is the Chinese shop, their restaurant, and one or ..two of their clubs and boarding houses. Imagination peoples Chineso homes with many strange furnishings, but if the curious could look through them their chief surprise in many cases would be to find the Chinese homes so very like the'.r own. There arc two main political clubs among the Auckland Chinese, and about half of them belong to the Nationalist Club, which represents the more progressive element. The others mostly belong to the Masonic group, benevolent and social in character, and these, generally speaking, are of the more conservative type. Countrymen Irom Canton. There are also social and business district associations, one of which meets in Lower Hobson Street. , Newspapers from China are provided for those who can read, gramophone music is supplied, games so popular with the Chinese are ir lulged in and occasionally there are speeches and debates.

All the Chinese in the Dominion are Cantonese, coming from certain welldefined groups of villages in the Kwangtung province. The original lure was the hope of winning wealth on the goldfields, but in that most were disappointed. At first they were nearly all in Otago, Southland and YVestland, but now more than three-quarters of them are in the North Island, mostly about Auckland and Wellington. They come from the country and are well a-cquainted with the intensive methods of farming necessary on their small allotments.

The women adapt themselves to New Zealand conditions with remarkable rapidity, and learn quickly to keep a home under conditions very new to them. The standard of comfort in their homes has shown a steady tendency to rise, and thflre are children in nearly every home. The average in 40 families of which particulars were recently noted in Auckland was 3.3. Strange as it may seem to some", the Chinese entertain just as strong a preju dice against intermarrying with Europeans as Europeans do against intermarrying with them, The Children's Education. There is some tendency among Chinese fathers to send their wives and children home to China, largely that the children may be thoroughly instructed in Chinese reading and writing and also because ibe cost of living in this country is so very much higher. In New Zealand the parents are keen to take advantage of the educational facilities offered, and the children flsually take good places in their classes and mix well with the other children. In one Auckland school for three successive years three different Chinese boys captained the school cricket team. This Chinese here do not readily turn to the professed religion of their adopted country, but on the other hand they incline to fall away from their own religious observances. They have no temples or shrine in the Dominion, and there is s very little to bo seen of the rites and customs of their native country. Everybody knows the Chinese mostly take to market gardening, the fruit trade or laundry work, bjut. sometimes they venture into other activities. At the recent jubilee celebrations at Stratford prominence was given to the fact that the pioneer of the dairy factory industry in Taranaki was a Chinese, Mr. Chew Chong, who started at Eltham the first dairy factory in tho province. There is now in Taranaki at least one Chinese dairy farmer, and at New Plymouth one is occupied as a fisherman.