THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8382, 16 March 1907, Page 7

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

(To the Editor). Sir,—l have read the long letter of Mr J. T. M. Hornsby, M.H.R., in a your issue of to-day on the Chinese ■'-'question with very mixed feelings. If what he says of the Chinese is wholly true, if they are wholly an immoral class of the community, and .so far gone in corruption that there is no hope of them—as his. letter leads people to suppose—then, perhaps, the best thing our Government could do would be to charter ships to • take them all back to China. But the white witnesses in the case do rot all tell the same tale. Some of the witnesses—l have read their •> letters in the press—declare that the Chinramen, taken as a body, are more moral than a great many of the European population of this . colony, and far in advance of the M Maori people in morals. The ' testimony of these witnesses is supported by the convictions recorded in the police courts. That is a hard fact, to which I invite the attention of Mr Hornsby. I do not doubt for a moment that there is immorality, and gross immorality, among the Chinese of this colony, but I should require much better evidence than has as yet been adduced to convince me that the Chinese as a class are worse morally and more corrupting- in their influence on society than a great many of youths and men in our midst who have had the advantages of a good English education, and the training of Christian homes. Indeed, I am strongly inclined to the opinion v . that very many of the Chinese are *'" far better people than most of the irreligious e!ass of whites in this colony. That is my impression after close observation, extending over a few years. I have seen very many Europeans and Maoris rolling about the' streets drunk, and I have . heard the filthy language of some of them, but I have never yet seen a drunken Chinaman. I have seen a great many Europeans and Maoris loafing about and living on their relatives and friends when there has been plenty of work for them to do, but I do not know of any Chinamen who set such a very bad example, and practice such immorality. They are at least an industrious people, a strong point in their favour. The industrious are usually if not always mure moral than the indolent. In regard to fleshly vices, alluded to by Mr Hornsby, my impression is, ■■ that few Chinamen are given up to the more loathsome of these vices. 1 wish I could say the same of Europeans. As a believer in the Christian religion, it is the duty of Mr Hornsby to pity the poor Chinamen, for tbey are strangers in a strange la id, and'among a strange . people. . It is also his duty to endeavour to make good Christians of them —a duty which, I am afraid, is much

neglected by most of us who have the advantage of Christian knowledge. In conclusion, I must remind Mr Hornsby that every man is more or less a moral ruin. Every man may not commit adultery and fornication and other and more degrading fleshly sins, but, as the Prayer Book assures us, "we are all miserable sinners, and there is no health in us." Therefore, surely we have the greater reason to sympathise with the poor heathen Chinese. They are our least fortunate brothers, who have had none of our advantages. — I am, etc., EUROPEAN. Masterton, March 15th, 1907.