CHINAMEN AS EMIGRANTS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 347, 30 October 1875, Page 3

CHINAMEN AS EMIGRANTS.

The determined rush to Northern Queensland is evidently a fair example of how the chines* l emigration will be conducted, and raaj serve to give some idea of the extent to which it may easily be carried. Previous to this influx there were not more than 20,000 to 25,000 Chinese in all A ustraiia. Within two or three months some 10,000 have appeared at Cooktown, the port for the Palmer diggings, and more arrive weekly. Nor have they come in any happy-go-lucky illregulated fashion.' Indeed their transport has been conducted more* systematically and under better regulation than much of the emigration that has been carried on from European ports to •America. It seems that the merchants of Canton haVe carefully advertised the wealth of the Palmer diggings in Southem China for some time past, and laid on steamers forJthe special purpose of conveying the Chinamen who come in ; on board these steamers by the hundred at a time. Chinese capitalists have, ac - cording to the correspondent of an Australian newspaper, accompanied their more needy arid .the trade ' which is certain, to spring up ' will be* entirely in the hands of the native firms,. Probably in this ..as in other cases the imported Chinamen are practically at the control of the merchants until they have fully paid for their, passage and outfit. But never before has the business been commenced on such a large scale* The Chinamen, too, have on the present occasion chosen for their inroad a part of English territory which, in all probability, could never be colonized with advantage by Europeans. Even seasoned gold-diggers fall victims to the climate of Northern Queensland, while, the Chinamen flourish; and that wonderful patience, which all travellers in the interior of China descant upon as the great fea - ture of their proceedings, is displayed in the persistent manner in whicli they wash over the poorest alluvial Goldfields, becoming rich on a return which would starve a white man.

It is not too much to. say that their coming opens up a new prospect before this portion of Australia. Though they have come in the first instance for gold and are at present content with this, it it can scarcely be supposed that a people so killed in agriculture will neglect the opportunity which is here offered. All depends upon the course which may be pursued by the authorities, and it is in such a case as this that the folly of the English Government in 'giving up the control of an entire continent to •'■• a sprinkling of inhabitants may once more become apparent. Whether the working people of Queensland are right or wrong in their desire toput a stop to the Chinese immigration, it is certain that this point ought not to be decided by the prejudice of a handful of men who can neither occupy nor live in the country which they are so anxious to keep to themselves. Without entering too far into the region of political speculation, it may fairly be said to be a possibility that the Chinese supplement pur efforts in those parts of our empire' when an Eng-" lishman cannot take up his abode without serious! loss of health. They are both better educated and stronger than the people from cur English possessions. Moreover, they show that where they are well treated they are perfectly capable of entering into the spirit of what is going on around them, and of lending their aid where they might be excepted to stand aloof. It may be remarked too that > Chinamen rarely or never commence a disturbance with those around them. The Heathen Chinee is a prudent being, and so long as he is permitted to get work and accumulate money in his own quite way without molestation, he is quite content to keep himself and his affairs in the background. A man' might live a long time in Melbourne or San Francisce without being aware that there is a complete Chinese quarter in each city, which i really as slice of a Chinese town interposed almost unchanged in the midst of a European population. _ No attempt is made'to build up a new district, as is done by Europeans in Eastern countries. They simply accomodate themselves to such buildings as they can secure. When a Chinaman one settles there the neighbours gradually fall of on either sides untill, as happens in New York and other American cities for much the same reasons with respect to Irishmen, the whole street is by degrees appropriated to Chinamen alone. The drawbacks to Chinamen as colonists, , or even as temporary settlers are frequently insisted upon; and should the emigration go on upon the scale which we have pointed out as improbable, these will be more severely felt. To begin with, the lower-class Chinamen is undeniably dirty very dirty. Even Eugene Pelletier, fresh from the unadulterated savagery of Australian aborigines, calls those he saw on board the steamer "dirty pigs." Hitherto it has been almost impossible to enforce among them the most ordinary sanitary regulations. Then there is the every-day difficulty of their competition with white workmen. The annoyance felt by labourers at encountering a body of men who are ready to work steadily all the year round and in a manner very little inferior to (heir own for perhaps half the current rate of wages is natural and perhaps not so unreasonable as appears at first sight. At any rate, under such circumstances the whole of the working class forms itself into one greaftrade union, We can easily imagine, from what has occurred when Belgians or other foreigners have been introduced into English workshops in times of difficulty, what would happen if a few thousand Chinamen were imported by capitalists to work the coal mines of South Wales during the continuance of a strike. Yet that after a very short experience they could work them as well and more • cheaply than Welshmen scarcely admits of a doubt. This is what is felt in the Goldfields. To say-nothing of alluvial workings, a Chinaman at half the current wages is a bettre

man in a quartz mine at the price, than-an English or American miner for all ordinary work. Many mines could be "worked at profit which are now shut down if only a sufficient supply "of Chinese miners could be obtained. Special enactments are, however passed to keep them out of of some countries andcombination with the free employment of those who are already in. Free trade in labour-is not likely .to be seen in our day. . The industrious and well-educated Asiatic further disturbs a problem already sufficiently complicated in; Europe. At present it is only where the Europeans cannot work continuously that the Chinamen is likely to have a fair field. Happily there is plenty of scope for their surplus labour in manyparts of the world besides that to which they are betaking themselves in siich a hurry just now. In addition to their uhcleanliness and their being so obnoxious to .white, labourers, there is the "difficulty?.about women; and it might very weir be made _ a subject of representation, in. .China that • no large number of. single; men should be- allowed to land in any • English possession, unlessthey "are subjected to restraint. They persist, has, been * found over and over again, in carrying out their..peculiar laws also, without to those of the country in which up their abode. Thisi of course ,is only with respect' to one another, but'cheir secretand relentless procedure against any one of their, own body who violates a custom,- trusting to the protection of the general law, has frequently been traced. So great, however, is the value of a-'supply of such men, that is to be hoped that some more systematic arrangements will be made than those which prevail-' at present, and that advantage will be taken of "what is now going on in Australia to consider the whole question in a statesmanlike manner.— «Pall Mall Budget.'.