THE CHINESE LABOUR QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7976, 1 March 1906, Page 3

THE CHINESE LABOUR QUESTION.

"The miueowners and managers in ' the, Uranavaal," says the Daily Chrouiclo, "rae 'dreffle smart' men. This is tbe first fact which stands out largo in the White Paper containing further correspondence on K Chinese labour. ... In July, mtL 1905, licenses were granted for ' tember none were issued, in Octobef 2,851. Iu November the.number , Badd«nlv jaiiped up to 13,199, and 3,000 more wore issued in December, so that in all 16,199 labourers were arranged for after tbe end of October. Well may, Lord Elgin': have teiograpbed that ho would •need full information as to the circumstances in which so large a number were agreed to in November.' "We canuot say that Lord Selborne V gives it. Ilia expluuation amounts to little more than saying that the "" licenses were granted because they were asked for. But why were they asked for? .... It looks very much as if coming events had begun to be foreseen, and the mine mnuagera were resolved to steal a march upon the authorities at Home. It was not only upon the possible Liberal Government that th»sa smart men layed tbi3 trick Mr Lytteltou telegrahed on October 27th suggesting a stoppage of licenses. Lord Selborne apparently did not Wly to this suggestion; and Mr Lyttelton, writing in- The Times in reply; to Mr Lloyd-George, says that be knew nothing about these 16,000 additiounl licenses. They were issued by the local authorities, 'without reference to, or intervention from, the Home Government. .' . '. . Wo must comment in the next place upon a remarkable passage in one of Lord Selborue's des patches. 'All arrangements have been made,' be says, 'with a view to a continuous 'yj I flow of immigration from China be- '\ ing established on a permanent '"" basis.' Then what becomes of tbe plea ou which the Ordinance was in the first place presented, and on which tbe Goverment agreed to it, that it was 'a regrettable neoessity' to tide over a temporary emergency? It was "a very doubtful expedient,' said Lord Lansdowne in the House of Lords, which the Government was only prepared to try 'on a limited scale.' Yet here is the Governor calmly assuming as a mat ter of course that the temporary expedient is 'established on a permau- j ent baaiß.' Lord Elgin most properly traverses the assumption, and reminds Lord Selborne that 'any arrangements which the Labour Importation Agency think proper to make in advance must be regarded as made entirely on' their responsibi* iity ,and at their risk.'"