CHINESE LABOUR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 83, 11 September 1869, Page 6

CHINESE LABOUR.

The great characteristics of the Chinese as labourers (says a writer in the " New York Tribune," relating his Californian experience) are par tience and economy — the first makes them efficient labourers, the second choap labourers. As a rule they have not the physical strength of Europeans, but their steadiness makes up for this. They take less earth at a spadeful than an Irishman, but in a day's work take up more spadefuls. This patient steadiness peculiarly adapts the .Chinese for tending machinery and for manufacturing. The tendency of modern production is to a greater and greater subdivision of labour — to confine the operative to one part of the process, and to require of him close attention, patience, and manual dexterity rather than knowledge, judgment and skill. It is in these qualities that the Chinese excel. The superintendents of the cotton and woollen mills on the Pacific prefer tbe Chineso to other operatives, and in the same terms the railroad people speak of their Chinese graders, saying that they are steadier, work longer, require less watching, and do not get up strikes or go on " drunks." And one of them is reported as boasting that he would yet have Chinamen building and running his locomotives. But the great recommendation of Chinese labour is its cheapness. There are no people in the world who are such close economist as the Chinese. They will live, and live well according to their notions, where an American or an Englishman would starve. A little rice suffices them for food; a little pork cooked with it constitutes high living, an occasional chicken makes it luxurious. Their clothes cost but little and last for a long while. Gro into a Chinese habitation and you will see that every inch of space is utilised. Pass through their quarters in the town, and you will see that nothing that can possibly be used is thrown away, unless it be human labour. Chinamen, of course, as other people, like luxuries, and indulge in them as far as they can ; but their standard of comfort is very much lower than that of American or European immigrants. This fact enables them to underbid all competitors in the labour marker. Reduce wages to starvation point for American mechanics, and the Chinamen will not merely be able to work for less, but to live better than at home and to save money from his earnings And thus in every case in which Chinese comes into fair competition with white labour the whites must either retire from the field or come down to tbe Chinese standard of living. Let us take (the writer ■ proceeds) the history of one trade to show what must be the result in all for which Chinese labour is adapted and into which it is introduced. About 1859 or 18(50, Chinamen first began to be employed in the manufacture of cigars, a branch of industry which then' supported a number of white workmen in San JFrancisco. These, of course, took the ala.rm, formed unions, adoptedresolutions, published appeals, an.d sympathetic cigar-dealers hung out signs, "Jfp CQQ]|e^ employ^ here,"

But it was of no avail j the Chinamen quickly learn the trade (not as easy a one as the uninitiated might imagine), could work cheaper, and did work cheaper, and have completely driven out the whites. Large quantities of cigars are now made in San Francisco, but made entirely by Chinamen, They commenced, of course, by working for Americans, but on learning the business, many of them set up for themselves, the Chinese employer, having the same advantage as the Chinese workman, in being able to get along with a smaller profit ; and in Jaokson, Dupont, and Pacific streets, are many large Chinese manufactories of cigars ; while in many foetid dens underground and out of sight the patient Chinaman rolls the fragrant Havannahs or cheap " five-centers " which are to regale the nostrils of the 'Melicans who despise him. This is the history of other trades in California, and from present appearances, will shortly be the history of many more.

In Kansas, 40 young Germans have written to a local paper, complaining of the dearth of women, and offering marriage to any marriageable ladies that may choose to visit them.

A Eoeky Mountain paper publishes an obituary of " Sim," chief of the Washoe Indians. It says that he was a " good though very dirty red man. He possessed a well balanced head of hair, and stomach enough for all he could get. His regard for the truth was notable — he never meddled with it. He left no will, and his estate consisted of a pair of boots." The King natives .are said to be dying off very fast of a malignant disease, supposed to be typhus fever, and to be caused by their disregard for personal cleanliness. The Alexandra correspondent of the " Aucklan Herald " states that the natives are not yet planting on the Upper Waipa, and express their surprise at seeing the Europeans getting in their crops as usual, and give hints as much as to say " You don't know what is coming, or you would not be planting. — ".Daily Times "

Alaska. — Reports are again current in tho Californian papers of groat discoveries of gold in Alaska, tlie territory recently acquired from Russia. They are stated to have been made by a Eussian engineer, who was prospecting in consequence of having obtained specimens from the Indians. On account of the climate, however, the mines can only be worked five months in ' the year, and the hard and uninviting character of the country is considered likely to preclude any very general attempts for their development.