The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2838, 23 March 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1872.

We cannot but think the circular addressed to the different Superintendents by Mr Ormond respecting the employment of Chinese on railways, a most unwise step. He must be well aware that there is a well-founded dislike to the employment of a race who cannot possibly become permanent settlers in the country. There are insuperable obstacles to this were it even desirable, for they bring no wives with them ; their visits are merely for the sake ot saving a little capital for investment on their return home, and therefore setting aside other weighty considerations, no accumulative benefit can be derived from their labor. Then it must not be foi-gotten that their heathenism should be a bar to settlement heie. However tolerant men ought to be in their estimate of the right of every man to worship according to his conscience, it is quite another thing to invite the settlement of a heathen population amongst us. When they are here by their own will, we ought, as is our duty, to allow them the freest exercise of their own religion. It is what we should assert for ourselves in China; it is what they have an undoubted right to here. But we do not care to have the influence of heathendom brought constantly before us, invited by ourselves to take root on our soil. Now, as of old, it is fraught with demoralising practices, with which our own population had better not be familiarised, although we do not suppose they would be extensively adopted. But we have in New Zealand already a large population of heathen who have a claim upon us to be employed. We have an active, energetic race, whose right of employment is equal to that of the Colonists, and whose laboring power has never yet been utilised. In Fiji, in Queensland, labor is being imported : in New Zealand we have never tried the experiment to any very great extent of inducing the Maories to work by payment of wages ; but this will have to be done if we succeed in inducing in them habits of order and industry. There may be some little difficulty at first ‘. but we cannot think but that might be overcome, and that through their aid the great public works projected by the Government might be constructed with advantage to them and the present white population of the Colony. Were this done, instead of the North Island contributing less revenue than the Middle Island, there would be a gradual increase, in proportion to the greater consumption of duty paying goods : the Maoris would be gradually drawn into similarity of manners and customs with the colonists; they would be led to appreciate the increased comforts of civilization, and the arts of peace would induce that conquest which extermination of the race by war alone could accomplish, were it necessary to resort again to arms. The importation of Chinese for the purpose of constructing public works would defeat one of the ends proposed by the immigration scheme. Great stress was laid upon railways being made the means of settling a hard-work-ing, desirable class of immigrants upon the land they necessarily will be the means of opening up. It was pointed out that not only would these works be made the means of giving immediate employment to immigrants, but they would open up fields for settlement that would be extensively availed of, and thus re-act and recoup their cost by creating traffic necessary to their becoming paying investments.

Construct them by itinerant labourer ami all these visions of future increasing prosperity vanish. We should be glad to see any number of European immigrants, for they are one with us in style of thought and social habits, although our language may differ. We should be glad to see the Maoris employed. They are joint inheritors with our children in the soil of New Zealand. Our interest is their interest, and our duty, is to. make common cause with them j but we should not be glad to see Chinese brought into the country to do the work, for all the help they can give us is the labor of a short sojourn, and they leave us. _ The capital they have accumulated is not re-invested for our benefit .’ it is taken In many respects we admiie the Chinese. We admire them as examples of order, discipline, and wellconsidered organisers of labor. We should be glad to see our own countrymen take a leaf out of their book in these respects. They have done us good service in Otago by utilizing what would otherwise have gone to waste ; but we have no desire to see them brought over to do work intended to open°up homes for thousands of our own countrymen who should he glad to come over from their comparative poverty to perraantly better theii condition.