AN ALARMING PROSPECT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 5 January 1877, Page 10

AN ALARMING PROSPECT.

Tjie question of Chinese immigration appears at length likely to engage an amount of attention, that is in some degree VrZTTT \° f- i fl m P°r tano8 ' X » America, the evil arising from the Celestial influx 13 great and most severely felt, and it seems probable that popular feeling throughout the States will ere long oblige their Government to adopt repressive measures. In New Zealand and the neighboring colonies of Australia, matters have not as yet reached a point that may at all be compared to that which they have attained in the great Republic, but still quite sufficient has been experienced in connection with the objectionable race alluded to, to make it very evident that their increase outside of certain limits would be extremely undesirable. As actual colonists Xy are by no means to be highly classed. They aS3 i st , it is 157 in developing the resources of the country by a certain amount et skill m market gardening, and by being able to dig remuneratively for gold in localities where white men could not earn^sufficient to support themselves by their labor: but in the fint instance, they might be well replaced by Europeans especially Germans at a slight increase in the prices of the vegetables produced by them, and in the second the gold they obtain might almost as well be left in the earth, since it is but taken thence to be carried into a foreign and barbarous tTbut7 but l >H h T enga * ed in its -q--tion contribute but little to the revenues of the colony. Ordinary settlers they never become, for they are from many causS ™2 Yf + r 146 Wth the S eneral body of the colonists r and if their influences upon the morality of these colonies are

not more deplorable than is at present the case, the reason is that their companionship is shunned by all, for no one will associate with them who has a character that it would any longer be possible to disgrace, and there is hardly a parent in the whole colonies who, rather than see his children frequenting the company of the Chinese, would not prefer to be left childless. Such is the case as it actually stands ; but the prospect becomes clearer, in which we obtain a view of an immense increase in the immigration of Chinamen into these countries. It is stated on the best authority that, induced by the overcrowded state of the Flowery Land, and encouraged by the flourishing accounts received from our shores, as well as stimulated by the sight of the comforts enjoyed by numbers who have returned hence enriched by a few years of labor at cur diggings, not only hundreds but myriads of these people are anxiously awaiting an opportunity of transporting themselves hither. We confess that such a prospect fills us with dismay, and, should it be realised, the future of these colonies, far from being the prosperous and honorable state of existence that we look forward to with hope, will undoubtedly become a bye-word and a reproach. Whatever be our mutual differences, we are all of us agreed that the welfare of a people depends, in an eminent degree, on its moral status. Our views on the best method of securing for this an elevated position are various, but there are few who would openly question the;fact that it's soundness is the chief desideratum. And if to this end churches are built and schools are opened, and many measures introduced into the community, will it not be a great mistake if steps are not taken to prevent an invasion that must go far to counteract all the good that at so great an outlay and trouble it is sought to procure? Such an invasion unlimited immigration from China would indubitably be. Tf up to the present the Chinese in these colonies, as we have said, have hud no very extended evil influence, though even this it may perhaps be permitted to question, it is because they have been comparatively isolated, and shunned by the civilised population ; but let them once gain such a footing amongst us as will enable them generally to compete successfully with white labor, and this will be no longer possible. The poorer classes everywhere will then of necessity be obliged to associate with them, and the consequence will be not the amelioration of the Asiatic, but the degradation of the European, and one generation so associated will do more to demoralise the colonies and to lower their inhabitants in the scale of humanity, than many lustres of civilising regulations will suffice to repair. We trust, then, that if the danger really threatens, as we are inclined strongly to believe to be the case, no sentimental notions connected with free labor, or liberty, or the British constitution, or whatever else it may be of the kind, will be allowed to interfere with the very necessary defence to be undertaken against it; and that those persons, who have much and who are desirous of having more, will not be so besotted by an inordinate wish for cheap labor, as to oppose any measures that it may be found advisable to adopt, for the purpose of preventing the colonies from becoming literally a sink of iniquities.