CHINESE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 18

CHINESE IN NEW ZEALAND.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, March 15. With the advent of the Consul for China and his staff many Wellington people have come to change their ideas very considerably about the Chinese as a nation and their ability as a people. The impression given by the Consul, his bright and intellectual wife, and his secretary, has been a decidedly favourable one. The secretary (Mr T. H. Shah} has just prepared an interesting Anslo-Ohinese calendar for 1910-11, printed in both Chinese and English. It shows (says the Post) the Chinese festivals and the New Zealand bank holidays, of which there are no fewer than 22 days. Of these eight only are observed in the Chinese Empire, and they include the birthdays of the Emperor, Emwress Dowager, and of Confucius, and the summer and winter solstice (or longest and shortest days). The numbers of Chinese in counties, cities, and boroughs as on April 29. 1906, the latest figures available, are also shown, together with the total populations of the divisions named. A mao showing the distribution of the Chinese in New Zealand is also given. The Chinese in the four big centres were as follow : —Auckland, 113; Christchurch. 61; Wellington. 350; Dunedin. 218. There were 1385 Chinese all told in the Dominion at the last census. In Rotorua County there was but one Chinese, and in 51 counties there were none. Mr Shah has added a universal time indicator, showing what o'clock it is at any given hour in New Zealand in nlaces so far remote as Aden, Tokio, and Pernambuco. The Chinese text, which is wonderfully neat, is the handiwork of Mr Shah himself. The calendar _ha_s been prepared for the Chinese Association of Wellington.