THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8229, 5 September 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1906.

The crime statistics of the Band have made terrible reading sinoe the Chinese were imported, and, unfortunately, the promise that the criminals would soon be weeded out of the mines and put under restraint does not seem to have been fulfilled. In respect of 60,000 Chinese who have been working la the mines there have been no fewer than 12,000 cooviotions of various

offences daring a period of about twentj-two months. Of a population of thirty-four millions in .England and Wales the convictions for twelve months in 1904 were only 198,395. But if tbey bad been brought up to i the ratio of Chinese convictions they would have exceeded a total of 4,000,000. On May 31st there were 1,311 Chinese in gaol out of 50,000. If the quarter of a million adult males in New Zoaland furnished a prison population in the same proportion we should have 6,500 criminals in gaol at a given date. As a matter of fact, there were 810 persons confined in our gaols on December 3,lst last, and the daily average of male prisoners during the year was only 728. The Chinese, although they are kept under supervision, are thus nine times as criminally disposed aq are New Zealand men. In tLe three months of March, April and May the 50,000 Chinere employed by the mine owners managed to commit no fewer than twenty-three murders and seventy acts of house-breaking. The victims of these crimes were all, or neary all, white people. The increase in the number of murders is more alarming still, for, according to the statistics presented to Parliament th 9 murders committed from June, 1905, to March, 1906, were thirteen; but during the following months they rose to twentythree. In July last year there were only 245 desertions. The number for January was 780, and in March 1,169 coolies broke out of the compounds and took to the country. There were 1,990 of them abroad during April and May, and no fewer than tseuty-three murders were laid to their charges. The Eand is obviously paying a dear price for its cheap labour.