CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1284, 27 March 1872, Page 2

CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

In our article last Saturday we mentioned that Mr Ormond had addressed a circular to the Superintendents, with regard to the introduction of Chinese labor. From our Nelson files, we see that Mr Curtis, the Superintendent of that Province, has replied as follows :

Superintendent's Office, Nelson, March 5, 1872.

Sir, —T have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, during my absence on the West Coast, of your letter of the 22nd January, in which you ask me for an expres>ion of my opinion as to the general expediency, as affecting this province, of the introduction of Chinese labor in the execution of railways and other public works. In reply I beg to slate that I am not prepared to recommend that any steps should be taken for the introduction of Chinese labor into this province. I have come to this conclusion from the conviction that, so far as an opening exists for the employment of Chinese in a manner profitable to the colony and to themselves, experience tends to show that a quite sufficient influx of that people may be looked for without taking direct action ior its encouragement.

With respect to the Foxhiil railway, for which the working survey has now been authorised, 1 believe that there will be no difficulty in obtaining a full supply of lalior on the t=pot at reason able rates. Indeed, the settler- of the district have been so impoverished by the long drought, together \vi»h the low prices obtainable for produce, that a large number of them are looking for ward with the utmost anxiety to the the opportunity which they hope will be afforded to them of getting employment upon this work to enable them to support iheir families. J trust the Government will not take anv action, either by the introduction of Chinese or otherwise, which may be calculated to disappoint these reasonable expectations. T have, &c, Oswald Curtis, Superintendent.

"iE<*les" wtites as? follows in the Australasian : " There is always some new evidence of the wealth and archi lecuiral improvement of the capital city of the leading Australian colony rt is characteristic of Melbourne that her citizens have fell faith in her future, which necessarily implies confidence in the well-being of the whole country. I am told that Messrs Sands and M'Dougall, the stationers who have won the position of the leading firm in the Australian colonies in their own department of business, are about expending £II,OOO or £12,000 upon a wholesale warehouse and factory in Collins-steet West, near the railwaystation, The elevation is one which will raise the architectural standard of the street,being considerably in advance of any building in the neighborhood."

In 1841 the following advertisement appeared in the New Orleans Picayune : - -Ran away from the subscribers on the 23rd of November last, the negro boy Oscar Dunn, an apprentice to the plastetinotrade. He is of griffe color, between 20 and 21 years of age, and about 5 feet 10 inches or 5 feet 11 inches high. All persons are cautioned not to harbor said boy, under penalty of the law. Wilson and Raterson, corner St. John and Common-streets." That "negro boy Oscar Dunn," was late Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, and died very recently. The New Zealand Herald says : Although nearly everybody is a Justice of the Peace in New Zealand, these commissioners are seldom to be found when wanted. Every change of Ministiy —like periods of fog—creates a swarm of these gentry. They turn up as sharebrokers, collectors of debts, clerks, tfcc. It is not impossible that we should hear of the dignity getting an honest living by blacking boots. Date obolum Belisario. In England the honor has always been a local importance, and its recipients are strictly ad scripti glebce, having " a local habitation and a name."