THE YELLOW AGONY IN MELBOURNE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1624, 1 August 1887, Page 3

THE YELLOW AGONY IN MELBOURNE.

Ihe oblef Bufferets by what they oall the " Yellow Evil" are the cabinet-makers, of Melbourne. " The Chinese cabinetmakers," eald one of the principal farniture ware-housemen m the colony to a reporter of the S|elboqrne M Telegraph," " are a fearful curse. They have driven white men altogether oat of the market. I would gladly put a atop to it, bad I the power, and I have atked those m the trade with me to combine and refuge to purohaae any of their stuff, bot they will not agree. And the furniture Is bad, too. Here, I will show you some." The merchant brought out bookcases, cheats of drawers, washstands— handsome looking articles certainly, and exhibiting to the amateur good workmanship. |; Look at th'a," he said, and noln^efl to a corner whore the beading was breaking aw»y, to clots of vanish here and there ; or, pulling out a drawer he demonstrated the bad way it fitted, showed the clumsily finished backs, the insecure locks, and a host of other faults not at first detected. Fifteen Europeans were discharged from ore Bhop six from another, and three from a third on a recent Saturday, so t\\»\ the number of whjte men xaaklng the furniture the colony wants is only ninety-two. This is os absurd as It is true. This is what one of them says : — " I have tried longer tban I can tell you to keep my billet, but now it Is all over. I have seen one after another of my mates gi?e It up and turn their bands m something else that the Chinese bad not taken up Some of them succeeded, and others did not. We are better off, anyhow, than they are m Sydney, for there the yellow men have the trade, and do not leave the Australian a single thing to make. If the sailors would only tell the people that the furniture Is of Chinese make there would be a lot of difference ; but they hide that, and every stlok they have got they oall European-made furniture. Things the Europeans have mada they offer R8 imported {$ood«, and they can readily cjo this, because' there fa not a dealer who will SBy tftat what we put together is not quite equal to anything they have tent out from England*." " Dnnedlo Evening Star."