THE CHINESE IMMIGRANT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14156, 7 March 1908, Page 9

THE CHINESE IMMIGRANT.

The Chinese Immigrants Act of last session added, it will be remenlbered, an education test to the'barrier erected previously in the shape of tjie poll tax of £100, with a view to limiting tte number of Chinese entering the Dominion. The Act, as usually happens with measures supposed to involve Imperial interests, is in abeyance pending the notification of the Royal pleasure with regard to it, and a. petition which has been forwarded this weok to the Governor for furtherance to his Majesty indicates that the Chinese of New Zealand are not without hope that an. effective protest may be made against the measure. Tlie petition is moderately worded,- and, as might be expected, throws no new light on an already well ventilated subject. The admitted fact that the Chinese are peaceful, hard-working, and law-abiding citizens and settlers is emphasised; it is represented that they are neither undesirable immigrants lior nearly such unwelcome residents as the provisions of the recent legislation suggest; and it is urged that the New Zealand Parliament has been guilty of. the commission of an unfriendly act towards the Empire of China. We read that "the mass of the people of New are strongly opposed to further immigration qf Chinese, and are anxious that legislation shosld be made effective so as to prevent it," > and at the same time that

"the people are somewhat indifferent and unjust on the point, but they are by no means desirous of such unfair and inequitable laws." Therq is some lack of harmony surely about these statements, and the attitude of the press of New Zealand in regard to the subjectseems scarcely to have been properly appreciated by the authors of the petition. These things are, however, immaterial in the face of the realised fact of the determination of the Government to discourage Chinesie immigration, and the support which public opinion accords its action.. Complaint' is made that the Act of last session will practically mean the total exclusion of Chinese from the Dominion, because Chinese of the class that comes here are not likely to be able, to pass the necessary test, while it will subject Chinese who have left the Dominion for a visit .to their nntive land tc the payment of a poll tax and a compliance with the test just as if they were- fresh immigrants. In regard to this last particular the petition certainly points out ,what seems a deficiency in this latest antiChinese legislation, that it makes no attempt to give special consideration to the case of Chinese who wish to re-enter New Zealand after having once satisfied the requirements of the law. The British Government has naturally an eyo of disapproval for any colonial legis-,, lation. lively to lead to international complications, but it is decidedly less chary than of yore to condemn the steps taken by the colonies in the endeavour to cope with the problem of the Asiatic immigrant. The ratification of the Transvaal Registration Act is evidence on that point, for this was a measure so drastic as to prove actually unworkable and dangerous. The New Zealand Parliament, it should be recalled, passed an Asiatio Restriction Act in 189G which failed to secure the Royal sanction, but, as we have remarked, the right, and indeed the necessity, of the colonies to strive to preserve a, high standard of racial purity is now more generally recognised than it was. Reference is made in the petition to the steady decline of their number in New Zealand in support of the argument that no extraordinary influx is contemplated by the Chinese. An examination of statistics shows that between the census of 1896 and that of 1906 the number of Chinese- in the Dominion declined from 3711 to 2570. The decrease is attributed mostly to the excess of departures over arrivals, but to whatever extent the imposition of the poll tax of £100 in 1896 may have originally discouraged immigration, the figures for the last two or three years at anyrnte suggest a turn of the tide. For instance, in the years 1904, 1905, and 190G the Chinese arrivals in the Dominion numbered 235, 239, and 260 respectively, the excess of arrivals over departures being 107 in 1904, 52 in 1905, and 127 in 1906. The ineffectiveness of the poll tax as a barrier against the Chinese immigrant would seem, therefore, to have been demonstrated.