THE CURSE of RACE ADMIXTURE.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 58, 5 September 1895, Page 2

THE CURSE of RACE ADMIXTURE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAB. Sir, — A Restriction Bill to prevent any increase of Chinese and other Asiatics in this colony is being brought forward in Parliament — not before it was time, because there are already too many Chinese here. Other countries have almost excluded that race by a prohibitive tax, and therefore New Zealand may at some future time be subject to an increase of Chinese who we u'd pay the present small tax imposed upon their landing. Differences of opinion have been expressed in regard to the question in Wellington and elsewhere . by .the press, and the Wellington Post had a long leading article in a recent issue of that paper against the movement, bnt its arguments are wrong, as I can show. The Chinese have had ample opportunity of colonising vast tracts of other countries where the climate would be more suitable to them than to Europeans, and, also, enriching their own country by various means, but they migrate to other countries and live like parasites on other races, rendering it an impossibility in many cases for Europeans to gain a hvlihood by market gardening or small farming, unless by the dangerous alternative of continually looking to Government for aid, or the other one of descending to the level of the Asiatic and to become subject to their diseases, including the dreadful disease of leprosy. By their faculty of imitation the Chinese would > compete against, overdo, and impoverish every calling, trade, and profession by turns, giving rise to that other curse of monopoly in order to compete against them, and when, after reducing many to poverty, the stage was arrived at of competing directly with the printer and editor, it is very likely the Post would be among the first of papers to protest against Chinese invasion. The saying that self- preservation is the first of nature's laws, in a sense, is rather a selfish one, but the welfare of kith arid kinship should be considered before that of the alien. If the evil commenced by ■ injuring and lowering the condition of rich men, what a great outcry there would be, but as it only directly injures individuals of small means by making them poorer, the movement gains little sympathy from many, partly from want of studying the question. It was this condition of affairs in the United States that the Yankee winked at until the evil hegau to seriously effect high circles. Attempts have been made by Protectionists to blame Freetrade for the introduction of Chinese, but the experience of the United States under a rabid Protectionist scheme, that also flooded that country with aliens of different shades of color, shows conclusively that' the question is a separate one. Christians seem to believe that the Chinese are accountable beings, and convertable, if so it is an insult to mix them np with bags of rice, fungus, and other articles of merchandise. A certain amount of mutual beneficial trade is a -solution of the difficulty, with a few residents in seaport towns for wholesale trading . purposes. Beneficial trade enables' nations to live apart on friendly terms, but rabid mis-named Protection has been proved to attempt the admixtnre of races and give rise to tribal jealousy, hatred, and ultimately, if not hindered, the inevitable war of race 3. I am, etc , \ Colonist and a Conservative. Fei'.ding, August 31st, 1895.