THE CHINESE DIFFICULTY.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 745, 3 December 1870, Page 2

THE CHINESE DIFFICULTY.

On a small scale Otago would appear to be threatened with the evils attendant upon the influx of Chinese into California. Already, in various districts, they aro driving the European miner out of the field, while for the purpose of establishing settlements the Chinese, as a population, are almost useless. The following remarks on the

Bubjecfc are from the " Lake Wakatip Mail":— .jj Auriferous ground, continues to be the subject of eager contention. Claims are taken up—we might almost say—everywhere. Some of these ventures must prove in the ordinary course of affairs imprudent attempts to rival the Chinese. The increasing escorts for our limited population have drawn attention to the district, and when hereafter a dearth of I a certain class of labor is noticed, one mu3t not be supposed to say that the field is as fair and open as a year or less ago. Quite otherwise, and the subject is one deserving attention. Here then is the important difficulty. The district is open to be taken up under lease or in extended claims of one acre to each holder of a miner's right. The object was evidently good as tending to secure a permanent European population. It would have eventually done so ; it has already, partially, but now the roads are blocked up. The Chinese have taken up under the extended system nearly every acre of known auriferous ground in certain districts. Like the grasp of the star fish, they extend their feelers in all directions, and acre after acre passes away. The inheritance of the colonists is practically lost, and that for a mere present gain. Locusts leave after them a wilderness for a season, but not an everlasting one; here, eventually, the Chinese locusts will leave standing records of permanent desolation. To traders these people may be a present good; but the end will be decay and rottenness. These are not our views alone. "We hear them expressed by our town traders; by our country storekeepers; by our graziers, who are profiting for the moment by the presence of these people, who must necessarily live and consume the articles and produce offered in the open market by them. They are therefore not selfish views; they show a realisation of our predictions uttered in these columns five years ago The " vendor " finds that, though he may sell with profit at present, it is only on a limited scale. That no colossal fortunes, as dreamt of, are realisable. That all the trade does not go into his hands, and that the foreigner has already entered into competition with him. He buys his drapery and other goods in the same market, aud undersells him. No wonder, then, that people are pausing and considering over the mistake they have made, and with earnest anxiety searching out for a method to meet what is now being recognised as an evil. The case is rather a realisation of the adage " as you have made yonr bed so you must lie upon it." That k Q 3 ia. otettiiiot mi-1io» ""<?<->mfivr-t.ah]e and uneasy, and more eager is tub looking to the horizon. What more common questions amongst the miners and others than " What shall we do next ?" "Is there to be any work for us in a few years ?" The other alarming feature is that the Chinese effect no permanent settlement ; they do not take up land; they barter and trade, but no actual settlement follows. Thpy do more, for they starve out the European miner. The difficulty is, therefore, a grave one. Day by day our auriferous lands are going into the hands of the Chinese, who are reaping enormous returns, which the European, but for his exclusive conduct, might have earned. His gains would have gone, to some extent, in land.settlement, and to the fostering of local industries. It is now otherwise. The difficulty can be met by a Chinese miner's right, so that at least taxation may assume an equitable bearing.