A WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8476, 1 July 1907, Page 5

A WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

ANTI-CHINESE AGITATION

Lately when a couple of meetings took place in Wellington under the auspices of the Anti-Asiatic League, the public looked on somewhat apathetically. The proposals submitted were rather too vague to be convincing, and the movement was not heartily taken up. Another Richmond (Mr W. A. Lloyd) is now in the field, and he is attempting to galvanise the community into a belief that Chinese competition cannot be overcome by mere talk. He set out unmistakably in the newspapers that he was convening a meeting in the Druids' Hall for Friday night, and a certain development helped to arouse the curiosity of the public, says the Wellington Post. On Thursday the Hon. R. Ik-Nab, Act-ing-Minister of the Tourist Department, sent Mr Lloyd, a member of the staff, a minute mentioning that his participation in the Anti-Chinese campaign 'was an infringement of the Civil Service regulations. "I interpreted that minute to mean that I must either cancel that night's meeting or hand in my resignation, and I chose the latter course," explained Mr, Lloyd on Friday. "It is not a question of Government sympathy or otherwise with my action in relation to the Chinese question. It is merely a question of the Civil Service regulations, for which the present Government is not-respon-sible. Seeing that the regulations are so explicit upon the matter, I don't think the Minister could have done otherwise than he has." Over three hundred men and twenty or thirty ladies gathered in the hall on Friday night. Mr A. L. Herdman was voted to the chair.

Mr Lloyd flashed a couple of trump cards at th? outset, and swung the meeting into the road which he wished New Zealanders to take. A message from the Premier showed that he was heartily in sympathy with the movement for securing a white New Zealand along reasonable, common-sense lines. Mr Massey, Leader of the Opposition, also sent a letter which clearly indicated that on at least one point he and the Premier were in thorough agreement. "This is not a party question; it is purely a national matter," said Mr Lloyd. "We are calm, cool citizens, who are going to settle this problem fairly. Is New Zealand to be a white country or a piebald one?" He explained that anti-Chinese was hardly a correct description of the movement which he wished to foster. It was no more anti-Chinese than preference between the dominions of the British Empire could be termed anti-French or anti-German. The whole scheme might be summed up in one word—preference for Europeans. The citizens were face to face.with a national danger, and they would ward it off not by persecuting the Chinese, for that would be merely furnishing a weapon which could be used against themselves, but by leaving the Chinese severely alone. The only solution of the difficulty lay in patronising European traders in preference to Chinese. The people had merely to be true to themselves, and then everything would come out right. He did not believe that any kind of poll-tax would ever remove the Chinese evil, for the tax was simply paid by the white people. He was quite convinced that the Imperiai authorities would never agree to any measure designed to absolutely exclude Asiatics, though they were not opposed to an education test; but no test would be effective so long as the white people supported the Chinese in preference to their own kinsmen. He appealed for a spirit of patriotism, for a manifestation of common-sense. He moved that an Anti-Chinese League should be formed in Wellington, with the object of regaining control of the fruit industry and the laundries of the city. Eventually, after a great deal of debate, Mr Lloyd withdrew his mo • tion, in favour of an amendment proposed by Mr W. H. Westbrooke, secretary of the Trades and "Labour Council:—"That this meeting declares itself emphatically in favour of a white New Zealand, and urges upon the Government the desirability of passing legislation prohibiting the immigration of Chinese and other Asiatics." The amendment was carried.