Wanted—Dead Chinamen.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XII, 20 September 1902, Page 717

Wanted—Dead Chinamen.

The Chinese question has developed a rather curious phase in the colony lecently. The difficulty this time is not over 'the exclusion of the living Mongolian from our shores, but has to do with allowing the dead ones to be removed hen.ee to the Flowery Land. A good many months ago a movement was made among the Chinament of the West Coast to get al! their dead friends sent home, and the. bodies, to the number of over 150, were exhumed ready for shipment. But the shipping arrangements fell through, and the‘bodies, instead of quietly reposing by this time in their native soil—a consummation devoutly wished for by every Chinaman—nay, one without which his future is imperilled—are now lying stored in a shed at Greyirouth. As the shed is not very far removed from the houses of the residents, objection has been taken to the presence of the corpses; and as there does not at this moment appear to be much chance of getting them away —it isn’t a cargo vessels lay themselves out to carry—and the hot wea-

fher will soon be coming on, the good folks of Westport are feeling uneasy on purely sanitary grounds. On spiritual grounds the friends of the deceased are uncomfortable too, and would willingly have the nuisance removed, but they are in a fix about a ship. To charter one for 150 corpses would come heavy on their purses, but that is what they probably will have to do if they are to satisfy at once their own consciences and the scruples of the authorities. In the meantime they are endeavouring “to offer sufficient inducement,” as the phrase goes, to owners of vessels by increasing the number of corpses. The Chinese in Wellington have applied io the City Council for leave to disinter the bodies of their countrymen from Karori cemetery. A good many Mongolians have their temporary abiding place there, and if they could be got to join with the gentlemen now waiting at Westport the two lots united might make up a party big enough to induce a vessel to take them home to China. The Wellington City Council have, however, refused the request, and practically told the Chinese that once in Karori, in Karori they must remain. Perhaps the unfortunate petitioners may find authorities in other parts more obliging, but if they don’t, it will be a rather awkward position for the Westport Chinese, with a hundred and fifty corpses on their hands. The story goes that they have already paid £5 a head for having their friends dug up; probably it will cost as much .to have them laid down again; and after all this bother and expense the poor dead will not be a whit better off and their friends will be the victims of whatever terrible punishment the Chinese creed has devised for those who neglect the most sacred wishes of the dying, and fail to carry out the most essential part of their duty to the dead.