The Chinese.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 95, 5 September 1871, Page 7

The Chinese.

Writing on this subject tliu " Evening j Star" (Dunediu) has the following : —" People must be taught by some popular atoJy such a3 Dame Europa's Sdiool or the Battle of Dork- j ing. Very pos3ibly if some good gonitis: were to devote his attention to the subject, and draw a picture of the Invasion of Otago by the Chinese in 1871, and horo they were ultimately defeated by enlisting an army of miners fro:n Cornwall, who brought thoir wives and 'families with them, gathered all the gold, iffid spent it in building neat cot- r tjges andaSteetty country towns, where they I and their %e3oendants lived in comfort and I happiness generation after generation—he j might reach the ears of those who imagine they know how to govern us. He need not! be afraid there is not material for the apo- i logue. If we were to sketch out a plan for , him, we should ask him to describe how some cloilocrats came from Britain with notions gathered from the plough, and how after a few years some of them grew rich and fancied themselves wise. How they quarrelled with men who owned flock* and herds, and when they brought out laborers, how they seemed to think only thf>33 could be useful who could plough, and sow, and look after sheep and cattle. He might perhaps even show how horror-struck were those clodocrats when it was found that there was gold in the Province, (is well as to grow goad corn and potatoes, and grass js for feeding stock. Then it might bj shewn that aa army of bachelors spread themselves like locusts over the diggings, picked up some of the loose gold that lay on the surface, ate and drank and quarrelled, and spent some bullion, sent the rest away, and finally went away themselves, leaving behind them grain untomhed that had b Jen raised with tho idea that they would buy it, and luef and mutton in ab indanco. Then the clodocrats began to feel that it was a good thi.ig to hive plenty of mouths to feed, and t toy folded their ha id s and looked after t iojc that were gone : but they never tried to induce others to come and take their places. Tistead of til it they divided into t.vo parti a, and had fierce batdes abou'. the land—the clodocrats quarrelling because they said their opponents waited it to feed sheep and cattle upon, and the squatocrats because they said their o jpcunts wanted it to feed sheep aid catt'e and grow grain too. Tiie war grew so tierce that noboly thought about the gold and minerals —the co il and building stnio. Taen some .spies from China cane, and found oat how rich the laud was, and they went away and fetched ship-load j a'ter ship-loidof Chinese, until the people! beg into ask hew these heathens could find ; out how to live and get rich while they who wore quarrelling ahuiit the land walked about with their hands in their empty pockets! wanting something to do > Some gave one reason-—some another ; but though one journal pointed out the way, the elodocraticgeueral would not listen. He said it must be for the people to decide—the Government could do nothing until the people bid them. At length some young men taught in the High School, who had studied six months at. the University, began to think the clodocrats started at the wrong end when they left the people to say what'was best to be done: and that it was f >r the Government to mirk out a workable scheme, and to ask the people to help to carry it out. 80 the first thing they did was to unship the elodocraiic leader and put a bettor man in h's place. Trough the 11 jw chief was but a youth, he was no worse for that, for his brain had not been fed on confused political theories garnered from ill-under-stood writers on land, finance, and liberty. He studied social organisation, and hesiw the advantage that it was for a nithjri to act as one man. He saw it was necessary to give ; men some well-grounded assurance that, ifthey j left Home, they would better themselves ; so be had the gold-fields proporlv* examined and ' nil] pod. He then sent agents to the 111*11-1 in; districts of Englmd, with authority to as ist those willing to bring their famil esaud 11 work certain ground —the money advanced to be repaid 011 their obtaining so much gold, j So year after year the number increased and; the country became richer, and there was no ' room for the' Chinese. The clodocrats at fust were sulky, and did not like to be put! in the shade ; but when they found the corn sell, a-ftu that nobody took any notice of their; narrow-minded ravings, they discovered they knew more about double-furrow ploughs than the art of Government, anil-shut up.