CHINESE LABOUR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16310, 11 August 1917, Page 6

CHINESE LABOUR.

Tlie community lias some tilings to fear in. war time. We sliall be muc-lx surprised if there is any need for Chinese labour to be reckoned .seriously amongst them. jThe feeling' against Chinese labour which would compete with New Zealand workers is too strong and general for many employers, if they were exceptions to it, to dare to flout it. The letters we have published in regard to Chinese workers who have been employed in the Mackenzie Country express sentiments which must be approved almost without exception, but, in dealing 1 with this matter a,s with others, it. is most important that a sense of proportion should be observed. T\ TothiiiQ- is more certain than that this community will not tolerate a condition in which Chinese would be employed to the injury of amv ISTew Zealand workers, least of all of returned .soldiers, but it is far from certain that the community has been asked by anyone to tolerate it. The facts, ®r> far as we can learn them, are that two Chinese have gone to work upon ta Mackenzie run. 'At least there is nothing in that to suggest a Chinese invasion. We prefer, in ordinary . circumstances, that Chinese,, when they are in New Zealand, should work as their own masters, in the industries they have made their own. The evil of their competition is reduced then to its smallest proportions. Bu\ if a farmer is unable to get labour, after he has made the best attempts., it is better in the interests of everyone that he should employ Chinese who are already in the country than that the production of his farm should suffer. It is most desirable, however, that they should only be employed when other workers are not available, and on the strict understanding- that they will not be retained after soldiers, who may have done the work before them, have returned. The community, we think, can be ! trusted to take care that these conditions are observed, and that Chinese, if more tha.n two of them are required for the Mackenzie Country, shall not be more than stop-gap labour. So far as returned .soldiers are concerned, information we havo gathered from the Patriotic Society does not bear out the statements made by tlie correspomlcnt who writes to us to-day. "We are informed that there are, no returned soldiers on the Society's books who require country employment, and inoniries have be-en made this week by employers who are anxious to engage returned men. and will be pleased to hear of any who desire employment. We understand that tlie two positions which have been filled by Chinese on a Mackenzie run were not such as returned men would be likely to covet. Returned soldiers certainly must have employment, first and after them New Zealanders, but the fear that these rules may be forgotten can be exaggerated. Our correspondents will be pleased to learn that the number of Chinese in JN'ew Zealand, which was 26;>0 by the census of 1911, had fallen, by the end of 1915, the latest year for which M'e have statistics, to 2474, departures being more than new arrivals and deaths more than births.