TO KEEP NEW ZEALAND WHITE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17906, 23 July 1926, Page 6

TO KEEP NEW ZEALAND WHITE.

INFLUX OF ASIATICS IS A MENACE. (Special to the “ Star ”) WELLINGTON, July 23. That the influx of Asiatics into New Zealand is causing strong comment was shown at a meeting of supporters of the White New Zealand League last night. The league was formed at Pukekohe a short time ago with the object of the conservation of New Zealand as a white man’s country, the principle involved being economic, not racial. Mr R. E. Ransom presided and the meeting was addrsesed by Mr Parvin, secretary of the league. He likened the conditions at Pukekohe to those at the Hutt. Asiatics realised that in both places there was splendid land. They could afford to pay £4* or £5 an acre more than a white man. The white man had to pay anything from £BOO to £I2OO for the construction of a respectable home. It was found that the Asiatics put up shacks eight feet by eight, with no floors, kerosene tin roofs, and no sanitary arrangements. Complaints had been laid and an investigation by an inspector of the Health Department had substantiated them. In addition, the Asiatics worked long hours. Mr Parvin remarked on the few white men in the fruit business in Wellington. After the war the Government put a number of returned soldiers into the fruit business at a good deal of ‘expense, but only 5 per cent were still engaged in the business to-day. The same thing would occur in the drapery trade if steps were not taken to prevent the influx of Asiatics. What they had accomplished in twenty years in the fruit trade they would accomplish also in drapery. The Minister of Customs had said that the Chinese were practically excluded for the next twelve months at least. Mr Parvin said Indians were regarded by the league as being as great a danger from the economic standpoint as Chinese. The majority were indentured labourers from Fiji. He thought the Government had the right to exclude those people. They all seemed to work under a partnership arrangement, and were usually not intelligent enough to answer the questions by the inspecting officers of the Labour Department. The white man had to comply with the regulations and close his shop at the proper time, and also open at a certain hour. The Asiatic’s shop assistants worked for £1 or 25s a week. There was also the question of the amount of money taken out of the country. Mr Hughes had once said that Australia had wakened to the Asiatic menace twenty years too late. Within the next two months it was expected to have a chain of organisations from one end of New Zealand to the other. He thought the Government would be compelled to take action. The meeting resolved to form a Wellington branch of the league.