The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 829, 10 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1878.

The initiators of the anti-Chine3e movement in Wellington are deserving of the hearty support of every true colonist, and we hope to see the example set by the Empire City followed by every other town in the Colony, until such an agitation is worked up as will compel the Government and Parliament of New Zealand to place some restraint upon the introduction of Chinese into the Colony.' That immigration on an extensive scale is necessary to developc the latent resources of this favored country no one will question, but we want a class of people introduced who will assist us in making New Zealand a great and glorious nation, peopled by a happysvnd contented race. This end the introduction of any number of Chinese can never help us to achieve. They mayadd to the population, but they do not add one jot to its prosperity. Neither do they contribute much towards the lessening of its burdens. Indeed, their presence has the very opposite effect, for they are the means of driving from our shores men who would prove good colonists, and whose presence in the country would add to its prosperity and its public revenue. The Chinese are a loathsome, immoral, and in every way undesirable class ; their habits are filthy and degrading to any community, and their mode of living calculated to create disease. Industrious they may be, but the country gains nothing from their industry, for what money they make they quietly pocket and carry back to their native land. They under-work the laboring man, under-sell the tradesman, and rob the rich. They are not the kind of men to make a nation great, for if they were how great indeed would be the Empire of China with its immense population. But it is not alone on these grounds that we object to the presence in our midst of large numbers of Chinese. The experience of other countries has shown that wherever Chinese labor is introduced domestic trouble is created, and the white population driven to perform acts of violence in the hope of protecting their interests. One section of the community is forced to war with the other section. On the one hand we have the employer of labor, in order to obtain a little extra profit, employing Chinamen to do the work which white men ought to perform, can be obtained a little cheaper ; on the other hand we see honest working men discarded and driven,jjwith, perhaps, their wives and families, to starvation, in order to make room for Chinamen, whose only recommendations are that, living the lives of pigs,|they-can afford to work for less remuneration. The civilised white man is driven from the land which should properly be his home, and his place is filled by by a semibarbarian. However satisfactory such a state of things may be to the few who gain by the introduction of Chinese labor, it cannot be viewed otherwise than as a public calamity. The country is the great loser, for one honest white-faced working man, who struggles to maintain a family, does more to make his country great and prosperous than do a score of Chinamen, who subsist on the meanest diet and live but for themselves. There may be decent, well-behaved men amongst the Chinese—doubtless there are many such, but as a class they are dirty, loathsome, beast-like creatures, whose presence m large numbers in any community, hoarding togethor as they do like so many swine, must do much to cause depravity and disease. It is true that so far New Zealand has had but little to complain of in regard to Chinese immigration, but we must not shut our eyes to the fact that the number of Chinese in the Colony is steadily increasing, and that there is every prospect of its continuing to do so. We have the experiences of other countries before us, and should profit by the lessons they teach us. AVe know what the effect has been elsewhere ; let us take steps at once to prevent the occurrence of similar results in this Colony. New Zealand should bo the last country m the world to permit the introduction of Chinese, pursuing as she is an extensive and elaborate immigration policy, and expending large sums of money annually in order to increase her population by the introduction from the Mother Country of the right stamp afanen and women. Whatever may be tm result of the public meeting to be held in Wellington next week, we hope that the co-operation will be sought of every constituency of tlia Colony. If this is done, we have no doubt that such a host of petitions will be presented to Parliament next session as will compel our legislators to at once face seriously the Chinese immigration question.