SOUTH AFRICA AND THE CHINESE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 257, 3 November 1906, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE CHINESE.

Id wply to a question asked in tinHouse of Commons this wee . as to the amount of white labour now rniplorrd on the Kand mines, it lias been officially announced that while the number of Chinese labourers has been increasing, the number of whites aas been steadily reduced. Between April and September of this year there was an increase of 393 Chinese coolies at work in the mines, and during the same period a decrease of white labour amounting to 1000. Our readers will of course remember that ono of the chief arguments used tn reconcile the British public to the admission of Chinese into the Transvaal was the assertion emphatically maue and constantly repented that the more Chinese there were tfn the Kand the more whites would be needed to supervise and manage them. The infills of the Chinese, we were assured by Lord Milner and the Rr.ndlords, would mean a large and steady increase in the number of whites employed in the mines. No one who had atuHied the question impartially could possibly have been impressed by such an ;i rgument; but the ligures we have quot-

Ed show how completely this confident I prediction has been falsified. The influx ' of the Chinese must necessarily mean ! the displacement of white labour; and the steady growth of "unemployment" , among the white population on the Rand is a significant commentary upon the vforthlessness of the arguments by which the advocates of tuis iniquitous policy have striven to bolster it up. Another fallacy concerning Chinese Labour has bern disastrously exploded during the current year. Before the I Labour Ordinance 'was passed, the people of the Transvaal were assured that the coolies would be peaceful, law-abiding citizens—and even if they displayed unpleasant tendencies they would be kept under careful control. * Unfortunately, statistics recently published throw a very lurid light upon the character and social rendition of the cheap, Oriental. Among tlio .-.0,000 Chinere working in the mine?, V2MO convictions have been registered diirinjr the past twenty-two month?. The population of England and Wales is 34.0011.000. and in the fame proportion the number of crimiml convictions for the ;am« time should have be?n about 0.000.000. As a matter of fact. they were less than 400.000. or not much more than 45 per cent of tlie Chinese record. On May 31st. of the total Chineso population of the Rand 1311 were in gaol. Allowing for flip difference in population. New Zealand's prison lift on the same ratio shciiH have totalled G3OO. But the average for this colony on any given day is only a little over 700. Thus the coolies on the. Rand are. at lon.st nine times as criminally disposed as the average " colonial.'' Between March and May this year the 30,001) L hiner-e on the Rand were credited with 23 murders and 70acts of burglary. And the worst of these figure? is that they are steadily rising in proportion to the Chinese population. We need hardly remind our readers that hundreds of Chinese have broken loose from the compound?, that they have caused a perfect reign of terrrr in the country districts, and that the Rijih Commissioner actually gave ihe ISnrr farmers permission to carry arms to protect themselves again.-t tLese "Imperial"' importations from the Fnr East. It is a pitiable business from beginning to end; and it is a bitter reflection tbat all the blood anil treasure expended so lavishly on the Boer War h-s merely served to :eo;;rr the Transvcsl. not for England or the English, but chiefly for a handful of alien capnalL-is, enriched by the toil of thousands of Oriental slaves.