Chinese Immigration.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 42, 31 August 1870, Page 6

Chinese Immigration.

- take the following from the Evening Post :— A.s a social question, Chinese immigration has already become of importance. Not only have our neighbours in Victoria to submit to the spectacle of heathen temples being raised alongside of Christian places of worship, and the gross rights of idolatry perpetrated openly in the view of Christian communities, but they are constantly being called upon to look at instances of social degradation, undreamed of before. How far this degradation extends, may be gleaned from the following extract from a Ballarat paper : “ We visited in succession the majority of the opium shops and bouses in which the younogirls are most frequently to be found. The first we entered was an opium establishment. In several of the compartments was a small stove, in which charcoal is burned, and the heat mingling with the smell of the opium rendered the atmosphere in the passage quite unbearable. Stretched on a bed in one of the apartments we found two females, whose united ages could not amount to thirty years, and who appeared to be just recovering from the influence of opium smoking. Both could boast of no mean personal attractions, and although vice was beginning to mark their otherwise pleasant features with plain, legible lines, yet one could scarcely conceive, as we were afterwards informed was the case, that each had completed a training of at least two years in the company of the Chinese. In the outer room were seated three ugly Mongolians, who seemed to be especially anxious lest their victims should be taken from their custody.” This article goes on to state how the Chinese Camp at Ballarat has gradually become a hotbed of vice and corruption ; how thieves and robbers, both Mongolian and European, find refuge there; and, in fact, affords details sickening in their motrosity, which we will not inflict upon our readers. It finishes by recommending, as the only means of alleviating the evils complained of, that the Camp should be removed beyond the precincts of the borough. These things, and others whicli we see recorded in the Australian papers, are warnings t#us. They show us that, however much we may stand in need of population, we should guard against the folly of allowing such a\ace as the Chinese in filling the I

Items from Home Papers. — o— Mace and Allen.—Last week there was a prize fight at New Orleans between Jem Mace and Tom Allen. Mace won after ton > rounds had been fought. Allen’s shoulder was dislocated. French Expedition to the North Pole.— The Journal du Havre, states that M. Gustave Lambert has at length completed the £20,000 which he required for his expedition to the North Polo. The Boreal will, it is reported, leave that port very shortly. A Powerful Preacher.—During a sermon delivered by a clergyman, one of the congregation seemed greatly affected. Proud of this circumstance, the preacher, after the service, asked the man how his discourse had affected him so much, “Oh sir,” said he “it is not that; but your long beard put me so much in mind of a favourite goat that I had lost, that I could not help crying.” A Precocious Runaway Couple.—New Orleans papers narrate the woes of a mature young couple; aged eleven and thirteen, who eloped from that city last week ; and, after passing two blissful days together in the cabin of a negro friend, were ruthlessly torn apart, and their brief romance terminated with sound parental whippings and many tears. Type-setting by Steam.—Mr Mackie, of Warrington, invites all those who are interested to visit his office, where his patent type-setting machine is at work daily, setting news type at the rate of almosta column of the Times per hour. He is making some machines for a leading London firm, and has himself guaranteed to double that speed all the day long. Mrs Gladstone and the Poor.—Mrs Gladstone has been attending a large “ mothers’ meeting” in the poor district of Millwall. The wife of the Premier presided at one of the tables, and after tea addressed the women; assuring them of the deep sympathy which had been felt in high quarters with the poverty apd suffering that had long prevailed in the neighbourhood. They were also addressed by Lady Robartes, the Rev. E. Hewlett, of St. Paul’s, Manchester, and the Rev. J; Hewlett, incumbent of the district. Anecdote of the Late Sir James Simpson. —A correspondent writing to the Times says ;—-“ Dr Simpson, on first propounding the theory of the application ot chloroform to patients requiring surgical aid, was stoutly opposed by certain Calvauistic objectors, who held, that to check the sensation of pain in connection with “ visitations of God” was to contravene the decrees of an All-wise Creator. What was his answer? That the Creator, during the pro .ess of extracting the rib from Adam, must necessarily have adopted a somewhat correspondidg artifice—‘for did not God throw Adam into a deep sleep?’ The pietists were satisfied, and the discoverer triumphed over ignoble and ignorant prejudice.” Free Kirk Maidens and Jesuits.—“ The daughters of the Earl of Ouilodou could not stand any longer the Free Kirk, of which their austere parent was a fiery votary. It seems that they had been secretely converted to the Episcopal Church of Scotland by a governess, who pretended to be a daughter of the Covenant, but who was really a niece of the Primus, and, as Lord Oolloden actually observed, when he ignominiously dismissed her, “a Jesuite in disguise.” From that moment there had been no peace in the house. His handsome and gigantic daughters, who had hitherto been all meekness, and who obeyed him as they would a tyrant father of the feudal ages, were resolute and would not compromise their souls. They humbly expressed their desire to enter a convent, or to become at least sisters of mercy. Lord Culloden raged and raved, and delivered himself of cynical taunts, but to no purpose. The principle that forms free kirks is a strong principle, and takes many forms, which the social Polyphonies, who have only one eye, cannot perceive.”— From Mr Disraeli’s new Novel “ Loth,air." A Buckinghamshire Labourer.—At the Uxbridge Sessions, on Monday, a case was heard, in which two carters, named John Saunders, and Thomas Hammond, of Loudwater, Bucks, were charged with assaulting a toll-taker. Mr Baker Smith, for the defence, wished to call one defendant to give evidence on behalf of the other. The bench acquiesced, and Hammond was put in the witness-box, when the following strange colloquy took place :—The Clerk : From wlujt I know of this class of men, I think I must hesitate before swearing him. (To witness) : Do you know the nature of an oath? Witness, rubbing his head; J dfln’no what you mean. The Clerk : Can ymV read—-have you read the Bible ? Witness : No. The Clerk: Can you write? less ; No."'- • Well, you k r ff r y° ln- name; liowvjo you spell that? VTBne.ss ; I dun’no. 'ppjLClerk : Have yt lever been to church > twice when I w l3 i a y° m 'd *'?’ m —i ■

The Chairman: We cannot take that man’s evidence, Mr Smith. Mr Smith : But, sir, he cannot be so bad as that. I will put the 1 question in a different form. (To witness): Now, my man, tell me, do you believe in future rewards and punishments? Witness seemed more perplexed than ever, and did not answer. Mr Smith: Come, have you ever heard of a God and a devil ? Witness : I dan’no. Mr Smith: Do you know how old you are 1 Witness: Ibe no more nor twenty. Mr Smith ; I think I must give him up, your worships. Ihe “ witness" was then ordered to stand down. This intellectual specimen of humanity (and there are many like him in Bucks) is in the employ of a Mr Roberts, hay dealer, <fcc., of Loud water.