The Waipa Post. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1920. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. ASTATIC IMMIGRANTS.

Waipa Post, Volume XVII, Issue 962, 1 July 1920, Page 4

The Waipa Post. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1920. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. ASTATIC IMMIGRANTS.

THE Government’s proposals in respect to the control of Asiatic immigration are keenly awaited throughout the Dominion. We have had in the last few years a great influx of Eastern peoples, and the presence of these undesirables is not welcome in any British community. And, since Auckland is usually the first port of call for the Asiatics, the trouble is most keenly in evidence here; moreover, the congenial climate of the north is largely responsible for the assembly of so many of the unwelcome immigrants amongst us. There is, in name, a system of Government control, 'but in reality there seems to be a very widely-opened door. Only a few months ago, subsequent to the disturbances in Fiji, certain Hindus were deported from that country. They were ordered to confinement on a remote island or, as an alternative, allowed to return to their native land by the first available steamer. They agreed to the latter, coming to New Zealand ven route. There is not the least doubt that so frail was the Government regulation that these very men who had proved a menace in Fiji, and were deported, found it an easy matter to gain admission to this country. The ringleader in the Fiji disturbances is, at this very moment, residing at Kihikihi, in the midst of a healthy and well-ordered British settlement. There is something very much amiss with our regulations for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants, when men of this type so readily find sancthary in this Dominion: Hindus and Chinese—men and women—are slowly but surely flooding the country, and a serious danger is being created for the future. It is a responsibility on the Government of New Zealand to realise this danger and guard against it ere it is too late. Legislation is promised this session, but unless it provides some very real safeguards there will be little satisfaction. The farcical regulations of the past should not be continued one day longer lest the people take the law into their own hands and 'by unconstitutional methods* rid % the country of the Asiatics, who are neither an.ornament in a British community nor a credit to any system of government.