WHITE SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.

Patea Mail, 19 July 1882, Page 4

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES.

A correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes “ I read in to-day’s telegrams of the shooting of Ah \ou, the Chinese storekeeper, by his young wife, and that she says she was forced into the marriage by her parents and the Chinaman. This may or may not be true in her case, but years ago I publicly advocated that no female under twenty-one years should be allowed to marry a Chinese without the consent of a stipendiary magistrate, who should be required to issue a certificate before such marriage could be lawfully celebrated. I was led to do this because there came under my notice a very prettygirl, not more than sixteen, married to a Chinese, with whom she lived in misery, and under a profound sense of degradation. 1 inquired why she had married the Chinese. She said that her parents had sold her for L‘2o to the Chinese, and that they had told her that if she did not consent to the marriage they would put her in Brisbane gaol. She was young and ignorant, and thought they could do so. She married, was miserable, made more than one attempt to stab that Chinese, and perished of disease and delirium tremens before she was twenty-one years old.

had many Chinese under my observation tor years, and I believe that they often purchase, wives in this way. I do not blame them—they act according to their light. I blame wicked parents. But Ido think that the law should protect young girls in this respect, for I am sure from observation that the bulk of European women married to Chinese have a sense of degredation, no matter how kindly the Chinese husbands heat them—and many Chinese treat their wives with the utmost kindness. I remember a ease in which a young and friendless governess married a Chinese. Shortly after the wedding, though her husband was well-to-do, she realised the mistake. He showed all the love and care he could show, but she shut herself up and soon pined away to the grave. The Chinese notion is to buy a wife from her parents. This is the national custom. We ought not to prevent them having wives, but we should

shield young girls from such parental oppression as drives to.crime and desperation. I do hope that some charitable legislator, either of the Upper or Lower House, will bring in a little Bill to carry out the above.”