WHERE JOHN BUYS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8388, 27 March 1907, Page 3

WHERE JOHN BUYS.

THE HAUNT OF THE CHINAMAN. i AN HOUR AT THE FRUIT MARKET. l -' A choking smill of raw potatoes pervaded the air. A yojr.g man, surrounded by tall barricades of cases, stood on an empty box, book and pencil in hand, inviting —in rasping, rapid tones, that dominated the babel of sounds beneath him —the bids of the crowd, his clients. It was sale time. The scene was the fruit market oft Courtenay Placo. Thirty men and iour women ttocd around a table on which the storeman had opened a sample case of tomatoes; ai;d of the thirty twenty were Celestials. "One—four, one—four, or.e —five, one — six, one — six, one six," chanted the salesman, and then crack went the hammer. "W-x Hi Sum." "No f;ar," said Mr Hi Sum, and his f,i e O'-came stolid. "Then what did you look at me for?" t "I look the sun, I like," retorted Mr Hi Sum, and he grinned the broad grin of the Oriental at his little joke. His countrymen caught the spirit of the\ moment, and twenty "ha-has" were hoard. Baffled, the man on the box felt back for the one —rive man, and sacrificed at that figure. More cases were opensd,twenty X>ro "n hands were thrust forward «ach time to test the contents, ten white men craned their necks over Chinese shoulders to snatch a glimpse of the quality, Mid sool a hundred more cases were m.ilcd down, sold. . ."Mostly Chinamen," observed the writer to a sad-looking white man who sat on a case of apples watching the busy scene. "Aye," was the reply. "The white man has no ehaice against them in the fruit trade." "Why is-that" "Weil, it's chiefly th« •■ rent. "When a wi ite man opens a fruit shop he takes his family to live there with him, and he has a big rent to pay. But a Chinaman takes in a lot of his Coimtrymen as boarders, and makes a rrofit out of them, even before he sells any fruit at all. The hawkers are- beginning to alter things."

Tomatoes had become monotonous, but suddenly there was a quickening of interest. The chattering oil the Chinamen ceased, and instead there was a dash made for the latest case opened. It contained plums. The Chinamen, in their effective, unobtrusive way, formed their usual ring round it, and a thicket of hands rendered the plums for a while invisible. "Don't eat them all," pleaded the storeman. "Start{jsthe bidding, somebody," shouted the man on the box. But it was a bad start. The "field" was otherwise occupied. "I with you would have your breakfast before you come here," Complained the storeman. Then seme, whose teeth were apparently past the plum-eating stage, tissed back 5 tire plums'they had extracted —they looked rather tough—aid business was resumed. $ Soon came the apples. Large green cookers were in a majority, but they required no sampling. At 3s per half-bushel of about 231b they were bought up with little excitement. Then the red ones carried the price up to 5s 9d, and each time as, he wrenched dff a cover, the storeman exclaimed invariably, "Oh, beauties!" and the sampling was repeated, "Some of these Chinamen buy a hundred pounds' worth each when a banana boat is in," said the communicative Englishman. "It's not all sold in Wellington. They send a lot of it to Chinese fruiterers in the provincial towns. See that tall Chinaman there.' He has no shop, but and ships away. He sends a lot to Nelson." i "To Chinamen?" . * "Oh, yes. White people wouldn't deal with him. The Chinamen are the boys who are making money in Wellington. They've actually got an ■ auction room of their own just along here." "Who's the firm?" J "Oh, it's got an English name. They don't call it 'John Chinaman and Co,' you may bjp sure. The wealthy Chinese traders in the city found the capital, and they built a fine store, and employ English clerks and an English salesman." "Who sends them the produce?" *" "Fruitgrowers! the fruit; Chinese the vegetables!" "They are getting a big grasp of the produce trade." "They are. And I was very much surprised to find the hold they are getting in Auckland. There are several Chinese shops, even in Queen Street." JJ And all our hopes of stemming the tide 1 of Chinese commercial supremacy are centred on a handful of barrowmen! —N.Z. Times. v