WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 9, 1 November 1919, Page 2

WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

What Chance 7

EX-SOLDIERS in conference assembled approached the vital matter of a "White New Zealand" with a good deal of boldness without anywhere touching fundamentals. The chief point of interest in the discussion was the one in which ex-soldiers complained that Hindoos and Chinese might rob exsoldiers of a job, one .gentleman stressing the fact that the Hindoo was ousting the white "bottle-oh." No New Zealanders in conference ever admit that a coloured man is his equal, but where he declares that he is frightened of the skill of a Chinaman or a Hindoo he most certainly declares that the Chinaman or Hindoo is his superior.

Cheap verbal camouflage about the dark person being able to live on the smell of an oil-rag solves no racial problems. The white man, in order to prove his superiority, has to prove that his methods are so advanced that (his Inferior cannot hope to make a living in New Zealand, and therefore has no occasion to come.

If, for instance, ex-soldiers wish the bottle gathering industry to remain in white hands, they might show the perseverance exhibited by the Hindoo. There is, of course, no doubt at all that the Chinese have trot a grip on the fruit industry, are into the collar-ironing bus^f 8 * very deeply, and so forth. What about it?

The alien comes here without knowledge of the country, or even its language, and inferior as he is in the eyes of the white man, he "makes good." This is not an argument for letting him in—it is simply a suggestion that the white man has to get busy, not by keeping him out per word, but per business superiority, industry, and persistance. Conferences referring to the "menace" of the Chinese and so forth always highly compliment the Chinese by being frightened of the ability of the Chinese. It is an exceedingly feeble thing for a white man to declare that he can t, make a living as a fruiterer because a Chinese is a fruiterer in the same street. All the white man has to do is to be a better fruiterer.

The racial question is deeper than any ex-soldier at the Conference expressed. The Hindoo, for instance, is a fellow-citizen of the Empire, and there are about four hundred million of him. His absolute exclusion from British colonies would lead to some debate between the Imperial Government and the Colonies for, after all, the Colonies do not control the destinies ot the Empire.

John Chinaman is in a different category. Although he is handicapped ' with a poll tax he pushes his yellow face in and wrests a living out of us. He couldn't wrest a living out of ns if we didn't permit him, and it is, of course, our own fault if he thrives. It would be far more useful to drive John out of business by doing better business than to scream at him and pass resolutions about him—and then to leave the Conference and buy bananas from him.

The Chinaman. is wiser in his generation than we are. We hold conferences and kick up the devil s own dust about everything, and let it rest there. John doesn't kick up a devil of a dust. He doesn't get up and protest or pass resolutions, and get the press to print 'em. He simply plods along. He takes up a bit" of ground that a white man wouldn't have "on his mind," and Trows vegetables for white men on

it. Very wrong of him, isn't it? Why not stop him growing vegetables on the ground that he might be growing vegetables that a returned soldier might grow if the returned soldier was the equal of John in perseverance, skill, and industry?

By all means keep the Hindoo and the Chinaman out of New Zealand by being so much more skilful in the jobs these people tackle than themselves. . If New Zealanders are pining to have the bottle-gathering industry on their own, no doubt by patience and perseverance they could educate themselves up to the pitch of perfection in this skilled trade. In many countries the superior people are quite content to permit the inferior to undertake minor offices and tasks, but if we want coolies' jobs there seems to be no reason why we shouldn't have them. We've only got to do them better to make the coolie stay at home. The real problem was left untouched except by Colonel George Mitchell. "If we want immigrants, for heaven's sake let them be of our own race." That's perfectly, sound stuff, and is the most vital matter New Zealand has to face.

The way to keep aliens out is to bring British people in, and every kind of body, including ex-soldiers, should insist that the first necessity in New Zealand is white people. If New Zealand is not peopled with white folk it will be peopled with coloured folk, and no arguments about smells of oil rags and a bloomin' Chow's doin' a white bloke fer his job will keep back the dark races. A weak man is foolish to squabble with a strong neighbour, and New Zealand is numerically as weak as water. The suggestion that we, a few people, are to be left forever in undisturbed possession of Lotus Land is so foolish as to be almost insane.

There is at present in New Zealand no racial problem at all. Coloured people are not here in large numbers, and only a few dark foreigners more enterprising than their fellows take the chance and come among us. The one way to prevent large influxes of uninvited dark gentry is to have large influxes of invited white people. That alone will settle the question of a "pore 'ardworkin' bloke being done out of his job." It )is for the people to decide whether they shall have five million white folk in New Zealand or thirty million dark ones.