CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 190, 5 October 1871, Page 7

CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

The Wellington correspondent of the ' Daily Times " writes : — The Chinese 'Immigration Committee is accumulating a great mass of evidence. Mr. Haughton was examined at a great length, and, as may be supposed, went in strong against the Celestials. The chief points which he argued >ver<* *"> follows: — Fi»-«t, the danger arising from the not unjustifiably bitter feeling entertained by the European miners towards the Chinese, and which arose, he said, to some extent, from the practice of the latter to employ scouts to watch the Eui-opeans, and as soon as gold was struck a horde of Chinese immediately came, surrounding the pegging of the original prospectors. The European diggers were so annoyed and pressed that he declared, if the encroachments of the Chinese were not checked, there would not be 100 European miners left in Wakitip district three years hence. Secondly, that the Chinese and Europeans being necessarily under the same code of laws, and the Chinese not having the slightest idea of truth, the property of the Europeans was always in danger when cases between the two races came into Court, the Chinese being ready to swear anything, and to procure any number of witnesses. This assertion Mr. Haughion amusingly illustrated by several anecdotes regarding J matters which had fallen under his own personal observation. The storekeepers, he said, were a class not distinguished for high feelings in respect of political matters, and being anxious to make money as fast as possible, they had at first encouraged the Chinese to come, but now even they were turning, for they found that the Chinese digger did not spend one-quarter as much as the European one. The Chinese wei-e, in fact, making a clean sweep, devastating the country, leaving nothing behind them, and then, returning to their own country with the spoil. To propose any special tax or duty on them would, he thought, be absurd, and never be assented to by the home Government. The only way he saw of remedying the evil was to insert a clause on the Goldfields Act, absolutly prohibiting a Chinaman acquiring any mining property in his own right except by purchase of the freehold. He had no objections to a few Chinese coming to act as servants and gardeners, but did not think they would be employed as labourers on the Goldfields, as public opinion was so much against them. Where they were numerous, and the Europeans were not, they behaved with great insolence and rudeness, even using force at times to carry their point. Mr. Haughton was examined on- several points by Mr. Macandrew, the object being to show that the Chinese contributed largely to the revenue. This Mr. Haughton. admitted, but thought the contributions in this way were not equal in the harm they did in other ways.