THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2139, 23 July 1907, Page 4

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

(To tho Editor.)

Sir, on reading your issue oi tin 10th insfc. 1 see* that a civil servant Air. \V. A. Lloyd lias liad to resign simply because lie gave his opinion to tlio people on tins great question, a question that not only afreets the worker, but also the employer, anti the merchant ; and it seems very hard that Air. "Lloyd should bo eoinpoiieu to resign on that account. 11uh is a question, Sir, that 1 have taken an interest in lor some years. i have had papers and pamphlets sent me from "Frisco” rotative to tho Chinese there, and how tlioy used to “tako down” tho authorities, and how tho simple-looking Chinese who came to “Frisco” as servants, selling rogotables, hewers of wood, etc., in time became merchants on a big scale, and dealt almost entirely with their own country for thoir merchandise. They came as servants, but left as masters.' They arrived poor but departed in a few years With riches. They cut down the white man in everything they undertook, and above all tlioy wore patronised and supported by the white inon. They starvo tlio white mail, still ho continues to support him. They live in houses with the bunks tiered up, like that in the steorago of a ship, and we roacf in the panel's that they ripen the fruit under their beds. Yet wo buy that fruit. Their ways are not our ways, still we support them. I have been informed that at a. laundry, they get theft- mouths full ol' water and sprinkle the clothes before ironing them. Now Sir, suppose those Ghineso laundrymen are suffering from some disease, is that not a very excellent manner of distributing that disease? The Chinese were also a great trouble in Australia. Sir Henry Parkes, when premier of New South Wales said Jhe Chinese must go, they must be put out of Australia, and I don’t care lor the whole British lloot should they como to defend them, they must go. Mr. Symes lecturing on the question in Melbourne said “The white people have the whole question in their own hands, and without the interference of tlio Government, because Often the members forming the Government are interested parties, and no matter what Act is passed, it is winked at. Do as X do, do not deaf with them, and the whole problem will be solved and they must go.” Sir I know a business mail in our town who will neither buy nor sell to a Chinaman. If we wore all of that stamp, in a few years there would not be a Chinaman’ left: in the country. Sir, it is a terrible state of affairs when the white man is too tirod to grow his own vegetables, but goes to the Chinaman’s gardens and buys them and then hawks them around the town and sells thorn. Such a case I know of in this town. I notice that Mr. Lloyd has struck the right nail on the'head when ho said that “AVo pay tho poll tax,” and it is a great pity that wo all could not look at it in the same light. Of course we must pay tho tax, simply because their profits are so great from the cheap and simple way in which they live, that it is a. mere bagatelle to them. AVhile a white man' and his family live in one house, and pays a high rent, the Chinaman has a lot' of

hoarders, as I have already described. which brings the rent down to a very small sum per man. Hoping that somo abler pen -will take tho subject up.—l am, etc. OBSERVER.