Correspondence.

Otago Witness, Issue 1418, 25 January 1879, Page 12

Correspondence.

A WARNING. TO THE EDITOR,. Sir,— ln view of tho action recently taken by tho seampn of the A. S. N. Co.'s boats,iu Sydney, I think it behoves every man in these Colonies, whether working man or employer of labour, to look the Chinese question squarely iv the face, and ventilate the subject, and exchange ideas, with a view of settling tho question: Chinese or no Chineso ? At first sight it may Beeni unfair to exclude tho Chinese from competing iv open market with the white. America and England open their arms to tho poor and oppressed of all lands. But a limit must be drawn somewhere, the Caucasion and the Mongolian cannot blend into one race. Self preservation is the first law of Nature ; and, could the capitalist only Bee it, his interests in this are identical with tho white labourer. Slowly, but surely, the patient, apparently meek and submissive Celestial, is supplanting the white in these Colonies and America. I say apparently meek; like the majority of eastern nations, their meekness springs from the consciousness of numerical weakness. When in the majority, their cringing subservience vanishes. _ Were they a superior race to ours, all objections to them would, I opine, be at an end ; but they bring us nothing, except, perhaps, new vices and new diseases. Allow me to put a case. The employers of labour, in, say, this Colony, object to pay the wages demanded of them by the white operative. They import Chinamen in large numbers ; their pay is only, perhaps, one-third of that of the white. For a while, thiugs go on well ; enormous profits are made, and the capitalist, a3 he surveys his fat banker's balance, wonders now he ever could have been insane enough to employ those of his own nation or colour. Some day, however, the reaction comes, and he, the employer of Celestial labour, bewails' his shortsighted folly. AJlargepart of his goods, previous to the employment of Mongolian labour, has been consumed by his own hands and the employe's of his fellow capitalists. Gradually the avenues to all other occupations are filled by Chinamen, and the inevitable result is a | pauper white population, or restless, degraded class, snatching or living how best they can, a large portion of the community criminals, by choice or necessity, and element of anxiety and daDger to the State and the property owners. Gradually he, the white man, sinks to the level of the Celestial himself . The filthy alleys and Janes, crowdedwith Chinamen alone, in the early days of their introduction, are shared in common with the miserable, degraded white. The Chinaman learns the whiteman's trade ; coon, at the command of those above him, he leaves the white man's employ, to work in the factory or workshop of his Chinese boss. The companies and bosses, can, under their system of semi slavery, cut off the supply of labour when they choose. Chinamen work for the wbitemftn, when it suits the Chinese capitalists to hire them out. The Chinese first completely monopolise tho labour market, and when securely fixed, openly compete with the white trader. The white buyer buys, of course, nt tho cheapest mart, the Chinese and soon the whito capitalist shuts up his shop or factory. Tho same remarks apply, not only to factory work, &c. , but to ovei-y branch of employment. The Chinese crowd together at night, packed as thick as they can lio ; they use little or no bedclothing, furniture there is almost none. They violate all rules of decency and morality, and place at defiance all sanitary laws. Owing to their organisation it is very hard to bring a crime home to one of them. Their sick rot and die, if poor, in their filthy, reeking slums in the open day. They crawl about tho foul back lanes, and perish slowly, unheeded, uu cared for, in damp underground location?, or anywhere, in fact, where they are put to get them out of the road. All that they can they grow for their own use ; the surplus, if any, is sold to the white. They import everything from China that they cannot grow, aud only buy from the white through necessity. The Chinese companies amass large fortunes, which are used in securing their position, and by their severe laws, including the death punishment, by usury, terrorism, encouraging gambling, &c, among their poorer couutrymen, they coutrive to keep the mass of the Chinese at their absolute disposal. Prostitution is reduced to a science, regular shipments of Chinese women being consigned to tho Chinese merchants. They ruin tho morals of the juvenile white population wherever they come into contact with them. They live where the Avhite man would starve, and for a white man to maintain a family decently, and compete with Chinese labour, is utterly impossible. It must not bo forgotten that the profits of the white employers of Chineso labour is drawn principally from the population of whites. The Chinese wants very little from the white, not even burial, if he can raise enough money to get his bones scut home to China._ Gradually, aa the whito wage earaers become impoverished and demoralised by the closing of every avenue to honest employment, the gains of the white capitalist decline through tbe competition of Chinese merchants, and theinability to purchase, of those who were once his best customers. Very little of all this is known as yet ia the Colouies, bub the above is a very faint picture of the result of the introduction of the Chinese into San Francisco, and other large ceatres of population in t,he United States. I have seen John in his own country, in America, and these Colonies, but, wherever he goes, he carries China with liiin. He comes to the white man's country as a peaceful bandit, as, it were ; he gathers his plunder together, and departs. He brings nothing, unless, as I said before, new vices, &c. but he drains the country of its life-blood, and leaves his mark for evil, for generations to come The labourer feels tho effects of his presence first, but the double and treb'e profits, blind white employers, for a time, to his suicidal policy. The employer discharges his whito employe to take on a Chinaman : he discharges, to a greater or lesser extent, a customer, to employ one who spends little or nothing with him. The only remedy, in my opinion, of any use in damming back the tide of Mongolian emigration., is to try and educate the employers of labour, as it were, to the danger of employing those who merely learn from them for the purpose of starting in opposition to them, when they are no longer necessaiy to them. The issue lies with the employers, the wage-earners are wide enough awake to their own danger. Once succeed in showing the employer that the Chinaman he employs is only learning 1 ia business to use it against him ; succeed in convincing him that his interests are identical with the white operative, and the issue is no longer in doubt. That can only be dove by ventilating the subject thoroughly, by showing shortsighted employers that cheap servile labour is after all, dear labour, if ifc causes a pauper, criminal, white population, and increased expenditure for gaols, hospitals, police, &c, together with the insecurity of life and property. There is danger in the introduction of large bodies of Chinese. The experiment of their employment, has ended disastrously in the United States. Once open our ports freely to the swarms of Mongolians who would come to these Cploniea, but for the present fear that they are

unwelcome ; once removo all fear of ill-treat-ment, which alone keeps them from coming in vast numbers ; then every white man, who, at present, depends on his hands for his livelihood, had far 'better, but for the crime, put an end to himself. The Caucasian and the Mongolian, some day, will struggle for life, it may not be, perhaps, for hundreds of years, but tho ecu niet will come some day. Their military qualities are, perhaps, low, but, if they lack quality, they make up the loss by their caormous numbers. They are awakening from the sleep of centuries, and it must never be forgotten, that these same peope swept, like a pestilence,_ over a large part of the old world. Human life is lightly thought of by them, and vast numbers Avill overpower tbo greatest courage. The danger is dimly discernible, perhaps very fdint and far away, but it is none the less real for all that. It will not come in our day, but come some day it must — I am, &c. , D. H. OSBORNE. Riverton, Southland, Jan. lGfch, 1879.