THE CHINESE AND THEIR HABITS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 217, 12 September 1881, Page 4

THE CHINESE AND THEIR HABITS.

(Written for the " Star.") Whoever baa— either i Q Australia Amerioa, or in the C elestbl Empirehad an opportunity o f forming au accurate estimate of the character economy, and morals of Chinamen' will, while aeorediJing them with

characteristics calculated to imbue the' mind of a casual observer favourably towards (hem, acknowledge that a closer acquaintance discloses others which render them very undesirable acquaintances outside of their own country. ; A Chinaman is a productive, notconsumptive animal. He is industrious, 1 ingenious, imitative, and sober. There bis good qualities end. His bad ones are not ao easily summed up ; some of them are indescribably horrible. " A Chinaman will live where an European; would starve." So much the better; for the European, but there is no gainsaying the statement, for a Chinaman ean exist oo rice, and grow fat if he can get pigs' offals to eat with it. ; Our acquaintance with John China-j man has been pretty extensive. Wej knew him on goldQelda and in cities ; we have traded with him, and come of! square through knowing enough of bis language to be able to drop- down to his little game. The habitations of thi Chinese on the goldfieldi of Australia are constructed, as a rule, of saplings! ragi, packing-caaa linings, and kerosine j tins ; they are dark, reeking dens', redolent [of the most offensive emails imaginable. To each of the hovels — • which are packed close together— ie attached a pigetye, also composed of a heterogeneous combination of saplings; tin and rags ; in faot the piggeries ar| but additions to the dwellings of the almond-eyed Celestial, five or six of whom will herd together in one of these squalid, pestilential abodes, the dimensions of which ere rerely more than twelve feet square, John Chinaman is a great lover of pork, which he preserves for an indefinite period he cutting in long narrow strips, which are spitted on a long skewer, dipped in "oil, and bong in the air to dry. Apart from the utter disregard of all sanitary lawje evinced by the Chinese, they are Objectionable on the Bcorpi ofmorality." f * * * The Chinese quarter in Melbourne is situated in little Bourke street. Anyone can go through it who cares to do so ; but they wijl not see much if they do, for they'carinot penetrate into the interior — this purlieus, the terra inco^nita^ike almost inaccessible places, known onfy; ! to. Ih 3 -initiated. We, however, had occasion to write a seriesoi article for the Melbourne press, and, in order to gain information, availed ourselves of thß services of Detective Considine ami Braton and of plain clothes Constable O'Mara and Hayes, and accompanied by them visited the veriest Alsatja, thait ever afforded an asylum to rriguel, vagabonds, and harlots. Borneo Lane, Juliet Terrace, Bilking Square, Allen's Lane, and the Celestial elysium. ws duly visited in their company. Not i:i one night ; our investigation- occupied a week, but the time was well spent). ' We have a vivid recollection of thjo eights we saw, and the smells we smelt are still fre3h, or rather we should say foul, in our nostrils. We commenced ' oar investigations after dark each hij»b!t and continued them until early morning. We entered uninvited the houses, the cook shops, the opium shops, the lottery tfhops, and the " fan tan " gambling houses. We saw John Chinaman in ap his glory and in all his abject haplesb misery and degradation ; we saw European women half nude lying crosswise on bed3, in a state of coma from opium smoking, with their heads resting o^l pillows, cheek-by-jowl with inanimate Chinamen. j In some of the houses yellow-skinnejl elfish little objects were crawling aboiit the floor, and presented as unwholesome and sickening a picture of infantile misery as could be imagined. The lottery shops are very profitable concern^. Numerous agents are employed to sell the tickets, and the shops are frequentejd by European youths and girls, who squander their earnings in purchasing tickets, for once infected with the gampling mania they soon cease to think <Jf anything but the number of marks'ontheir tickets. . ' Chinamen think more of the de4d than the living. When one of their eountiymen is ill they say, " he sick, lie no good," and leave him to shift f|r himself j but- they pay periodical visibs to tHe cemetery, and have quite a picnic among the graves in honour of the departed. Nothing , comes amiss to ja Chinaman, He will collect old jam kerosene tins and extract the solder from them. But his specialty is gardening, and It is almost incredible hojw much he -will make a small < plot of land produce. Melbourne is in a grekt measure dependent upon " John"for its supply of fresh vegetables. "Johuj" when once he adopts a trade; soon selcures a virtual monoply, for he cj|n produce cheaply and undersell all other competitors, but he "plenty savee|" when to raise the prices, and Chinese; cheap labour would cease when onceEuropean labour was . driven out of the' market. Let those who love John li4ei : with him. We like him not, and ate :: of opinion that;the; smaller the percentage we have of him in the country! the better ; and little as we relish him, should relish his, mongrel MJongolifm progeny still less. ' ~ ~T