The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1912. ANTI-ASIATICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 222, 18 March 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1912. ANTI-ASIATICS.

Wherever there is idleness, there is mischief. In places where the people are anti-this and anti-that, it will always be discovered there is too much leisure. The loafer is the most violent critic of the "capitalist" who has achieved capital by not loafing. Christchurch is the anticity of New Zealand. It has more fadß to the square yard than any other community. It exalts as heroes youngsters who disobey the law; it has excited controversies about Salvation Army people who preach in the streets, as they do everywhere «lse; it sometimes thinks it is a clever thing for a big crowd to hustle two- policemen when they are en- ' gaged at the work they are paid to dp; and now it has discovered that it does not want Chinamen. Anti-foreigner risings and assaults are always instigated by idle people who usually have not the talents of the persons against whom they fight. The idea of the inept person is that the yellow man should be physically dealt with and prevented from earning a living. Some people call this "British fair play." Here are the facts. The Chinamau may be disliked, but, he hatogs on. In theory the State dislikes him and wants him to go back to the Flowery Land. Inept people who are frightened at his cleverness insist. The State, therefore, like a good fellow, imposes a £2OO poll-tax on him. Chinese merchants, knowing their coolie, gladly pay the £2OO, and the Chinaman Btill comes. He also succeeds. Instead of making a desperate effort to be as good a business man as the Chinaman and beating him at his own game, his rival kicks up a row, possibly smashes a Chinaman's window and otherwise displays his unreason. The Chinaman is legally in New Zealand, he does not interfere with the colonial order of things, he apparently fills a want that white people refuse to fill, and he struggles on under the handicap. If the people do not desire him, they should cease to patronise him. If they are as clever in the lines he takes up as he is, they need not fear him. They simply acknowledge by their ravings that he is a better man. We would like to sea every Chinaman go back to his new republic, but the Christchurch way is not

the way to effect this result. A few residents get together and pass a resolution urging citizens against supporting Chinamen. As long as Chinese shops exist in New Zealand they will probaMy be patronised. Women, on the lookout for vegetables, do not worry about the color of the man who sells them. It is not human nature to carefully search for a man because he happens to be of a certain color. The Chinese themselves apply the boycott as no othei nation can. If a community in China has a grievance against a trader they simply ignore him without fuss. They absolutely agree. It is impossible to get a New Zealand community to think all in one piece, and there is no dOubl that this Cliristchurch agitation will die down as all other Christchurch agitations do. If the Chinaman is permitted into this country, he has a right to trade and to make a living. If the white man admits that he is not the equal of the Chinaman, it is poor argument to brea'k his shop window and to assault him for the white man's weakness.