RUSSIAN COLONISATION IN ASIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2549, 10 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN COLONISATION IN ASIA.

According to :m appendix to the last report of tho Russian Department of Agriculture, an obstruct of which has been laid before Parliament. (Miseellaneom Series, No. S3), Russian colonisation ia tho remoter parts of Central Asia is not. very successful. The provinuo of Somiroohineli, on the borders of Chinese Turkestan, is especially referred to. The immigrants from Russia are either Cossacks or peasant settlers; the former are described as a rough, savage race, given to drunkenness and vice, thievish, cowardly and.destructive ; while the peasant settlers rarely come direct from Russia, but have originally emigrated to Siberia, whence they have been driven south by the cold aud by the extraordinary restlessness of the Little Russian character. They acquire a taste for a nomad life which destroys laborious habits and ruins their usefulness as colonists. Whole communities apparently settled down in comfort will wander away aimlessly for the slightest cause—the vague rumour by a pasaing soldier that the Government are alloting lands near Tashkend or Merv, stories of the wealthy region .through which the Trans-Caspian railway passes, and the like. The case is mentioned of one well-to-do colonist who abandoned an excellent farm to go wandering south, merely because he had been told that a peculiar kind of weed which gave him trouble ceased to grow beyond a certain limit. The Dnngan and Tarantchi immigrants from Chinese territory are growing very numerous, and are regarded as a serious hindrance to the rapid Russification of the country. They lower the price of agricultural products, and, being familiar with the local system of irrigation, become dangerous competitors to the Russian peasants, who are thereby led to abaudon their settlements and wander off in the vain search for some new Eldorado further south. They give the towns and villages an Asiatic appearance ; but it is hoped that the spread of education will strengthen tho Russian element against the growth of the Dungans and Tarantchis, who bring with them " all the seductions of Kitayism (Chiuesism), beginning with the cultivation of rice and ending with the filth, the shamelessness, the raids, and the opium smoking of China." The total population of the vast province is only 758.255, 595,000 Kirghiz, 75,000 Dungans and Tarantchis, and 44,600 Russians, including Cossacks.