JOHN CHINAMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1155, 17 January 1874, Page 3

JOHN CHINAMAN.

The five hundred and thirty-six emigrants from the Ibwery Land, who arrived at Port Chalmers in the B«araship Mikado on Friday, were brought up to Innedin by train on Saturday. An absent minded praon on the railway platform, when the Port train *me Id, might for the moment have imagined that o was in Pekin or Shanghai for the Europeans eemed to form a very small proportion of the crowd. The Chinamen, too, neither looked nor behaved like grangers. There was none of that combination of bewilderment and curiosity generally to be noticed in a crowd of new arrivals from Great Britain when they first set foot on their Antipodean home. Each of the Chinamen appeared to have some business of his own which he was Intent upon doing ; and in a very short space of time these almond-eyed immigrants had exchanged greetings with the few of I their countrymen who -were at the Statiun to receive them, and were off in small detachments to the lodir- i ings that had been prepared for them. On the whole i they were a very respectable-looking lot of men— well i dressed, clean, and comfortable in appearance. The i acclimatised Chinaman generally conforms to Euro- i pean custom in the matter of ereneral articles of dress i but those who arrived on Saturday were all arrayed in i the garments of their native land. Their immense i cane hats— like shallow wickor-work baskets two feet i in diameter— provoked the laughter of the small boys 1 and as they paraded the streots, in the baggiest of ' baggy inexpressibles, triumphs of skill no doubt on i the part of some Celestial snip, they were the objects i of considerable curiosity, for shopkeepers came to their i doors as they passed, and crowds of youngsters fo] lowed i them about the city. In one house about fifty of the s Chinamen are boarding, and in the open yard bohlnd ' we noticed them at work in a manner that speaks well for their habits of cleanliness, although to " John " c has been attributed the possession of anything but a f regard for the sweetness of his porson and dwelling, t Clothes-lines had been ripped up, and upon these the f new arrivals were airing the bedding- and clothing 1 used I on the voyage Their toils, some of them roachinir to v the heols of the wearers, had been let down, and wore c flying 1 like pennants in the breeze, whilo the owners 3 worked with a will. Intheafternoonandevoninirstrinjrs t of Chinamen wero to be seen almost everywhere walk- li ing generally on the outside of the footpath in single file, v • custom lmpoied upon them by the n&rxow streets of s

their native tovrni ; While the flwt and lut men of the string often kept up an animated conversation in high-pitched Chinese without looking at each other, Bret Harte, who had a considerable Cahfornian exporience of Chinamen, s»ys that the expression of the Chinese face in the aggregate is neither happy nor cheerful. He is also of opinion that a Chinaman cannot laugh, but is only capable of a sort of facial spasm to express amusement. This certainly seemed to apply to the passengers by the Mikado. We have not many wonders to show them, but they must see a deal that to their eyeß is strange and curious, «nd yet they walked about the city with solemn faces and littlo appearance of curiosity. In the evening we noticed that the basket hats were exchanged for " pork pio" head covers, which in tha case of several of the younger men of the party, were worn with a slight approach to jauntiness, although the wearers still preserved the gravity of demeanour which they no doubt considered becoming. The baggy trousers too were discarded in many cases, and white moleskins purchased and donned in their place. John did not appear to be at home m the moleskins, however, and seemed to be possessed of an irresistible desire to look at his legs.