Chinese Coolies in South Africa.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 267, 15 November 1904, Page 4

Chinese Coolies in South Africa.

Ihe September number of the chronicle of the London Missionary Society contains an interesting article by the Rev. T. \Y. Pearc'e, this senior member of the society's stall in South China, on coolie ' labour, Irom which we reprint the following extracts. Mr I'earce, writing from Hongkong, says :-"A leading factor in the situation is Chinese poverty. The word 'poverty' takes on a new meaning when used of the Chinese as we know them in the southern provinces. It is not easy to imagine a lower standard of human existence than is met with in the mud villages of the worst districts. ]n ordinary years there is always a longer or shorter interval between the exhaustion of the old supply and the ingathering of the new crop of •ice, when the farming folk subsist for the most part on .vegetable refuse. In famine years women and children are sold quite openly, and carried off in largo numbers, To theso poverty-stricken areas the Directors of Emigration proceed. They speak in the first instance not with the met who are afterwards indentured in Hongkong, but with village elders and heads of clans; and the selection of individuals as applicants for mining service is made in family conclave. The emigrating coolie takes the lirst step on his new career at the bidding of his kinsfolk and clansmen ; the more intelligent of them understand the contract conditions, and explain them in the family council."

After describing the arrangements made for dealing with the emigrant coolies at Hongkong, Mr I'earce says .—"On two other phases of this subject, the 'economic' and the 'moral,' I deem myself in some measure ■qualified to write by long resident in Hongkong, and by varied experience of Chinese life as a missionary. Few persons who have had the satisfaction (which has been mine lor twenty-live years) of discerning and pondering the place of Chinese labour in what is perhaps the most remarkable instance of colonial expa»sion by its means will be found to disparage Chinese labour in European colonies. As nn instance of what British enterprise and capital joined with Chinese labour can accomplish, Hongkong may take the first rank among the marvels of the age. Sixty years ago this small island had no value, no history, and hut a handful of settled inhabitants. It would not now be easv to find within the same space elsewhere so much successful exploitation and prosperous enterprise. . . With regard to the danger of moral contamination through the influx of Chinese, it has been said already that the Chinese coolie possesses industry and contentment. Over against these must be set his many vices. In recent pictures these are monsters of •irightful mein,' t„ e very sight of which should move us to confine every Chinaman in a a compound all to himself..' My experience is that the pictures are overdrawn, and the Chinese are not so black as they are olten painted. in the rural districts, to which the bulk of these coolie emigrants belong, we have known the control of village elders to keep n whole countryside comparatively free from the corrupting influences of what are known as the great vices.' it has been stated already that the services of opiumsmokers are invariably declined. Although it may not be possible to keep out opium-smokers entirely it is sale to say that the hardened opium sol, will not be found j n the mining camps. 'j'l lut Chinese mining camps will be more or less the haunt of the vicious is most certain '-Man m the lump,' says tire American humorist, 'is bad.' To 'lump' men in mining settlements has never proved a means of moral elevation It may, however, be affirmed with confidence that for no people in the world will proper supervision accomplish more than /or the Chinese It is fair to urge that what headmen in i villages can accomplish bv moral suasion and strict oversight may not be found impossible to overseers and directors in mining camps, the members of which are for the most part drawn from the rural villages of China.".