THE CHINESE IN AUSTRALIA.

West Coast Times, Issue 283, 20 August 1866, Page 3

THE CHINESE IN AUSTRALIA.

With reference to the question of the Chinese in Australia, the " Sydney Morning Herald" of the Ist inst., says :

It will be seen that Dr. Lang has introduced a Bill to repeal an Act restricting the immigration of Chinese. What may be its fate in the Assembly it may be difficult to foretell. Indeed, the fate of measures in that House dees not always depend upon the opinions of its members. The paroxysm of wickedness and folly which disgraced this country a few years kgo we may hope has few representatives at the present time. The Chinese are precisely what they were. Their character has proved exactly as it was represented by those favorable to their freedom. Their conduct among us has been mark e a v obedience to the law and perhaps too great deference to the prevailing feelinoaround them. They have not indeed proved always the cowardly, cringinocreatures which they were said to be^ nor have they shown by an y aggres ! sion on the labour prerogatives of the European population the po wer or c disposition to destroy its supremacy The vices which were attributed to them have not been openly manifest, and probably they never t 0 - any g reat extent existed. On the other hand, they are more sober and persevering thrifty and peaceable, t nan an equal number of Europeans of the same callings. As an act, therefore, of simple justice, as an atonement f or past wrong, to clear the reputation of this colony, the last t 0 abandon' a policy un-English and unchristian, we hope that the bill introduced will find favor with the House. In the course we have taken all alon 01 , we have not been influenced by any preference for the Chinese population. What we should like best of all is 'a colony of Anglo-Saxon parentage, without any admixture of black, browa, or blue. Not that we are so absurd as to imagine that the British type is the perfection of human nature — that there are are no races so well formed, so fine in their physical development, so capable of great intellectual or moral improvement. Tbese are all the egotisms of nations which ought not to be accepted by any man who wishes to judge things as they are. On the con- I trary, it is a source of satisfaction that while the natural sympathies of tribes and people attach them strongly to those with whom they have the closest affinity, there is no nation that has any exclusive claim to supremacy in the human race. All sorts of people have hard their day. India and China wern in the career of intelligence and development when our forefathers were painted savages. They have been arrested by a stereotyped civilisation, but they are now penetrated by influences which, if not checked, may place them high in the ranks of civilised nations. Russia was the contempt before she became the bugbear of Europe. Going still further back, even the African race has had its representatives in the highest forms of

human strength and genius. It was once the teacher of mankind. In the midst of the massive constructions of Egypt are found monumental countenances chosen to express the highest serenity, power, and intelligence, and these with the lineaments of the negro. Those are the reproofs of that vanity which leads men to suppose that they have a special authority to~ trample upon their kind because of those varieties of c )lor and shade which are traced only by the keenest vision on the stages of transition from what is deemed the highest to the lowest form. Climate, customs, diet — all these give their character to a people, but what may be achieved by men of every race vindicates the title to honor from all, and to all the family of man.

Indtax Morality. — There is a story told of a European judge, who complained to a native subordinate of the perjury practised in his court. " Yes," replied the native, "it is very bad. I have never known it anywhere so bad. Here you can hire any number of witnesses to swear that black is white for four annas ahead ; but in my native district you cannot hire them for less than eight annas."

A curious telegram from China was received recently. It runs thus :— Question United States treaty tim latms Pashiaky worse ;" which, it has been suggested, should have been — "Question whether the United States treaty has been violated. Piracy worse."

The bursting of the second 600-pounder Armstrong has shaken a system and almost exploded a theory. Locusts are committing great havoc in Algeria. When has a man four hands ? — When he doubles his fists.

" Working for bare life" is defined to be making clothes for a new baby.