THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3097, 21 January 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1879.

The agitation over the Chinese question has partially subsided in New Zealand, owing, probably, to the settlement of the strike in Sydney, which gave rise to the " agony " here, and which had its origin in an attempt to limit the importation of Chinamen, and their employment on board the fleet of the A.B.N. Company. White it lasted the question was very generally discussed, and it assumed sufficient importance to be made the subject of talk by some Ministers of the Crown when before their constituents or otherwise placed in a position to make their utterances of public interest. It does not require any very great knowledge of the Chinese as they are seen in the Colonies to make out a strong case against them. They are undesirable as immigrants when they come in large numbers, and a curse wherever they have established themselves for any time amongst Europeans, or white people. Perhaps San Francisco offers the most notable example of the evils of" Chinese cheap labor "of any city or country in the world. There Chinamen have overrun and nearly monopolised the various industries formerly carried on by women, girls and boys, driving the females from honest labor to the streets and the boys to swell the criminal ranks; evils great in themselves and sufficient to induce some prohibitory legislation in regard to Chinese immigration. Another phase of the question to be considered is, that for thus depriving the natives of the soil of a legitimate means of livelihood, they contribute little or nothing to the State, and consequently become an expensive burden. The following extract from The Keal Estate Circular of California puts this phase of the question in figures that cannot be mistaken, and the accuracy of which cannot be questioned:— "Of the 22,669 real-estate taxpayers in this city but 32 are Chinese, and the majority of this small number are lessees. The real estate on which they pay taxes is assessed at $419,730. The whole tax thereon for this year is $9402; Mont-gomery-avenue tax, $197. The assessed value of personal property owned by the Chinese is §764,730; tax for city, county and State purposes thereon, $17,129. About 15,000 Chinamen pay the poll-tax of $2 each. That would be $30,000. These sums would make a total of $56,723. The city has an estimated population of 308,200, of which 30,000 are Chinese. The Chinese, therefore, pay but an average of $I*B9 each towards the maintenance of government, exclusive of what they pay in licenses. The real and personal property, of this city is this year assessed at $191,000,000 in round figures. The tax rate of $2.24 on each $100 shows that the total taxes to be paid are $4,250,000 in even figures. The Chinese constitute one-tenth of our population, but they only pay about one seventy-fifth of their proportion of the taxes. Nor does this begin to show how little they really do pay. Nearly all of

the Chinese are adult working males, while of the whites by far the greater proportion are women and children. Few of the latter can pay taxes, while all of the Chinese working adults should pay. The city and county of San Francisco receives from Chinamen no more than enough to pay the cost of policemen's salaries in the Chinese quarter and the cost of prosecuting, convicting and maintaining Chinese criminals, leaving aside their just share of all the other expenses of local government. The Chinese, in short, have all the benefits of government, while they pay, at best, not over one-eightieth of their share of its cost."