AUSTRALASIAN CHINESE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 989, 8 March 1910, Page 4

AUSTRALASIAN CHINESE.

The census of the Chinese in Australia find New Zealand is to ba taken. This is in pursuance of an edict issued by the Imperial Government at Pekin to the Chinese Consul-General for the Commonwealth and the Consul for New Zealand. The Progressivists in China have for years been calmouring for constitutional reform, and with the advent of the new'regime the realisation of this national aspiration appears to be within an encompassable span. It is generally understood among the "informed" at Pekin that the year 1910 will see the creation of a Central Parliament. In this Central Parliament the Chinese scattered over the globe are to be represented. The proposed system is novel, but it has a far-teaching significance. The census returns, which are now being collected, are expected to be complete in the course of two months, and as soon as possible thereafter they will be dispatched to Pekin. Representation in the Central Legislature is fixed upon a population basis, and it is competent for any reputable and capable Chinese citizen in Australasia to be chosen as a representative of his countrymen in the Pekin Congress. This peculiar form of franchise is not to be restricted to the native-born Chinese. The Australian born sons of Chinese fathers are to be included in the scope of this extended system of parliamentary representation.