THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1909. AN AMUSING APOLOGIST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9542, 14 July 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1909. AN AMUSING APOLOGIST.

The Chinese in Wellington—in the capacity of laundrymen this timeare attracting attention once more. The one great regrettable fact about the Chinese is that they should be allowed into the country at all. There is nothing in common between them and British people. We do not want them —we do not admire their ways generally—and we cordially detest the horrible and vicious practices to which some of them are addicted. China is a wonderful country in vari ous ways, and despite her already enormous population, capable of tre mendous expansion, and of carrying and maintaining in reasonable com fort a far greater papulation than she already possesses. Chinamen should stay in their own country, or settle in those that are kindred to their own, and their willingness to ex ploit the people of this Dominion should be sternly checked. We have, of course, always recognised that those Chinese already in the country should be fairly treated. They have paid for their admission, and the Government must be loyal to its compact, but any further coming of the yellow man to these shores should be prevented by diplomatic means. It seems that the European laundry proprietors in Wellington are suffer ing from unfair competition. The Chinese are not subject to labour legislation as they are all "partners" and the consequence is that they can do as they like, a fact that certainly seems to suggest that as competitors in trade they must be extremely diffi cult to cope with successfully. The Chinese Consul, Mr. Yung LiangHwang is naturally "putting in a word" for his friends, but when expressing his views to a pressman the other day he was scarcely logical. He said that "several had told him that their businesses had greatly decreased of late, so that from five working together they had come down to three or two. This showed that their business outlook was not very bright. The hours of employees in the English laundries had to be limited, because, if they were not, the employees would leave rather than accept less favourable conditions than those existing in other indus tries. He did not see how their competition could be ruinous to the Euro pean laundries, especially the large factories with machinery and many employees. The Chinese were virtu ally obliged to co-operate and run their laundries in partnership, be-

cause, coming to this country

singly, and having to deposit £100 on landing, besides paying their passage money, they needed to ob tain financial strength in that way. Mr. Hwang also repeated the state ments which he made on a previous occasion, to the effect that the Chinese do not live so cheaply as is generally supposed. They spent more money on food and drink than other men of their class in this coun try. It was their custom to go out on Sundays nicely dressed and to meet together at a social feast, where they would have eight or ten courses, with Chinese wines which paid a high import duty and were rather expensive. In one breath the Con sul tells us that owing to the cost of getting into the country his coun trymen are impoverished, and that they have to work long hours in order to recoup themselves, and in the next "burst of confidence" the Consul describes sumptuous dinners on Sundays at which expensive wines on which a high import duty is paid figure on the side board. It would certainly be very much bettter if the Chinese were to work reasonable hours, even if the dinner of ten courses has to be cut down to one of three, and the quality of the wine reduced. Then again the argument that Europeans engaged in the laundry business should virtually pay the poll tax, passage money and so forth, of their yellow competitors is altogether monstrous, for that is really the Con sul's contention! In effect, Mr Liang Hwang says "you make them poor by reason of the poll tax, and must put up with the consequences." The Consul's arguments will not "hold water," as the phrase goes. The Chinese in this country must be pre vented by legislation from unfairly competing with the European.