The Daily News MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. OUR CHINESE POPULATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 223, 14 September 1908, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. OUR CHINESE POPULATION.

Public opinion unanimously supports the Premier in his detenniiiiauuii to limit, to vanishing point, if necessary, by constitutional means, the immigration of Chinese. While some zealot's of the Anti-Asiatic League advocate restrictions of a nature so promotive and drastic as would assuredly, if given assent, involve Great Britain in international complications the Premier, with more wisdom, hopes toj discourage the immigration of Chinese by imposing conditions such as will make New Zealand anything but a" "Flowery Land' for the unwanted alien. A deputation which waited on the Premier on Wednesday urged, amongst other impositions, that a tax of £SO per annum be placed on Chinese remaining in the country, «Sueh a proposal is, of course, opposed to every principle of British tradition, and could not for a moment be entertained. The Chinese, having been admitted to the Dominion, arc en-

titled to exactly the same conditions of residence as the individual of ray other nationality. That is a constitutional principle that may not be violated, nor indeed is it likely to be. The suggested increase of poll-tax would, Ave believe, also fail in its object of exclusion. hi the first place, as was pointed out by the Premier, such a proposal would not receive the Royal Assent, but even were assent given, the only result would be. that Chinese, wlio it is well known are financed by their I I compatriots to pay the poll-tax and work under contracts till it is paid, would have to stay just live times as long in New Zealand to earn and repay it. The educational test (which has only just come into operation, and has consequently not yet been given a fair trial), in conjunction with the poll-tax of £IOO, should, in nm opinion, gradually effect the purpose for which it was devised. The most 'effective proposal of all, and one that we arc pleased to note the Premier proposes to again submit to Parliament, is the bringing of Chinese under the provisions of last year's Factory Act. Legislation on this basis, necessitated by the evasion of the country's industrial laws by Chinese, could scarcely fail to receive the endorsement, through the King, of the Imperial Government. It is absolutely essential in the vital interest of Europeans engaged in pursuits in competition with Chinese that the latter should be. compelled to observe the same conditions of labor as the law imposes on Europeans. Evasion ol these industrial laws, combined willi their inferior conditions of living, lnvve enabled t ! l'e Chinese to practically oust our own people from certain avenues of industry. To take the laundry industry as a case in point, il was stated in our columns recently that at the end of March last year there were 31-1 Chinamen, who received £2713 in wages, engaged in laundries in the Dominion during the year. During the same period 1205 Europeans who lound employment ill tile industry received .07,T1M in wages. In other words, tin- official iigures show that while Chinese laundry workers received an average weekly pittance of lis id a-picce (we do not know whether or

not there is also au allowance ol rice aiul "dossing" quarters), the European employer, who employs principally girls and women, pays an average weekly wage of 12s 2d. And while the European factory owner is under the very proper necessity of observing Factory Act hours and general conditions, the wily Chinese pursues his calling almost without a single effective restriction. The clauses of last year's Factory Act, which the Premier now proposes to reintroduce in a special measure, provided that no further registration of a factory would lie permitted if the employer was a Chinese, and no Asiaticshould work in any laundry for more [ than forty-eight hours (exclusive of meal times) in any one week, or 011 any of the 'holidays specified in the Factories Act. This provision was intended to apply to all laundry proprietors as well as their employees. The Premier should go further and stipulate that Chinese laundry proprietors should be compelled to pay the ruling rate of wages to his employees, and to absolutely prohibit New Zealand girls and women from working for Chinese, or at least in any building occupied or used by Chiues-e. The contamination, especially of fenuiU European children, by Chinese should be specially guarded against by law, for there is no use prudishly shutting one's eyes to the deplorable disclosures from time to time made in the principal cities of the Dominion. We do not seriously entertain the allegations of alarmists that Chinese are smuggled into New Zealand in considerable numbers, and that Vlie Chinese population of the Dominion is far in excess of the figures revealed by the census. We are inclined to accept as nearer tlic true position the Premier's statement that, the number of Chinese is decreasing. The rate of diminution, we are persuaded, would be greatly accelerated, and that without raising any question of international law, if the industrial conditions regarding labor and wages, and general standard of living, were made to apply as closely j to the Chinese as to New Zealanders.