SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1894. THRIFT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4723, 17 May 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1894. THRIFT.

Wk Imvo never been a profound admirer of tlie Heathen Chinee, hut he sets an example of thrift which it would be difficult to match in any other colour. We have seen John ■ paying his modest week's takings into a bank in the shape of a gigantic bag of coppers, ami this perhaps is one of the points in his thrifty programme. He does not beliove in holding money or iu spending it,but lias a profound faith in banks and in a substantial credit balance at such institutions. We saw John the other day taking out his credit balance, preparatory to a flit to the land of his birth, and lie draw from the bank coffers a very respectable heap of gold. His rule of life is simple, he pays in,coppers and draws out gold, understanding exactly how many pennies make a pound, and how a certain number of pounds will make him a Well-to-do man in China, John takes his money out of this country, but he earns it first by hard and persistent labour, and it is unfair. to grudge him his winnings, Europeans, if they chose, could grow vegetables as cheaply as John and as iyoll, but they don't. Who but a Chinaman can put down a hundred sovereigns and boast that he has made them out of cabbages ? What we would like to see would be some of our own permanent colonists taking example by John and going in for growing household requirements. There is money in cabbages and we refuse to beliove that a white man could not make it out of them quite as well as a Chinaman. John may work longer hours, but he certainly cannot put as much work into a given number of hours ns a white man. It is also said that John lives more cheaply than a white man, but evon this is open to question. Chinameu liko luxurious living, and do, in their own way, spend money oil it, The chief advantage which the Chinaman possesses appears to be his business capacity and his thrift. There are many reasons why it is undesirable to have in a colony like this a redundant Chinese population, hut the right my to den] with tlio Celestials is not to boycott them, but to show them that they cannot beat us on our own ground. Why surrender into their hands without a struggle tho market gardening trado of the town and district. Many householders do not admire Celestial vegetables, as they are rather apt to run to size rather than to sweetness, bnt they have no choice in the matter, for English competitors vacate the field in favour of the Colestial. There is money in even cabbages, and why should not some of those who want money or have idle time on theiv hands try to earn it. Land is available in this towniat a nominal rental and in some cases free of chargo for those who care to cultivate it, but men do not 6eem to care ,to make the most of their opportunities, If the .wiring man does not liko to see John take my to China a hundred or two hundred,

gold aovereigns ha should grow Imb own vegetables and practice that thiift which enables the Celestial I resident to make a little fortune.

, WIB cannot comment on the annnal meeting of tho Town Lands Trußt, ns its balance sheet is not yet available to the public, and this document necessarily must be the basis of any intelligent criticism. The only point that seemed to interest the public was the scholarship question, and on this there appeared to be " much ado about nothing." If the Trustees took the revonue of

their special fund, erected a workshop in the school play ground and employed competent persons to teach boys to use carpenters' and blacksmiths* tools we should say their money would be well spent in the beat interests of the community, To devote their funds to scholarships is not altogether fooling money away, but it is next door to it. Of course an agricultural school would be proforable, even to a workshop, but then it is, perhaps, hopeless to look for the latter. Boys' want to be taught something that will holp them as settlers in after life, but they get very little teaching of this kind now-a-days. The only other basinoss seems to have been that somebody asked at the meeting for a town hall, but this is not a serious matter. People will ask for such things in much the same way as little boyß cry for the moon, and it it quite evident that the one is as likely to be obtained as the other.