CHINESE IMMIGRATION COMMITTEE.

11

H.—No. 5.

They will undertake to cut the largest fields of sugar-cane or other crop, and will go on continuously until it is completed ; but they are rather exacting as to wages. However, once they make a bargain, they are scrupulous in keeping it; and I have always esteemed them rather trustworthy than otherwise. If you make arrangements with their head man, it is very seldom that any difficulty arises; his arrangements are always regarded as binding. In the Straits, they depend altogether upon Chinese labour, which is considered preferable to that of coolies. In the way of morality, the Chinese are not regarded as very strict in their ideas, and petty thefts are common amongst them ; but I should not say much more so than amongst a similarly low class in the City of London ; in fact, I think the Chinese will compare rather favourably. A great deal, however, depends upon the class of Chinamen. You may have both good and bad. I have seen very bad samples. They were generally supplied by crimps, who had perhaps swept the refuse of a town ; but it would be unfair to class these as the average sample of Chinamen, or with those who would be regular emigrants, who, for a certain consideration, would emigrate. I can give you an instance of how five or six shiploads of Chinese were brought down to Victoria under regular engagement. They turned out excellently. Many of them were engaged as shepherds, many as wool-washers and fellmongers. I employed some of them as shepherds myself long before the gold fields broke out, and I found them capital hands. A friend of mine employed about twenty of them. The majority, as soon as they saved a little money, returned to China; but many remained in the Colony, and cne in particular has been with my friend now some twenty-five years, and has come to be almost the head man in the establishment. But these were of a good class, and had been imported for three years, and after the lapse of that period continued in the employment if they chose. Those who are on the gold fields are imported by their head men. I have not been in Ceylon ; I believe it is mostly coolies who go there. Generally speaking, I can say the Chinese behave as well, or nearly so, as any other race ; and they are far more amenable to discipline and the law, than a great many Europeans would be. As to charges of immorality brought against them by popular hearsay, I may say that I have sat as a Magistrate on cases for criminal assault; but I did not regard that as anything exceptional or wonderful amongst a wild and lawless digging population. Generally speaking, you will find collected around a Chinese camp, the basest of European women, and, as a matter of course, their little children are almost devoid of decency. The natural result of contact between Chinese and these people is, that a considerable amount of enormity takes place. Ido not think respectable children are ever assaulted. I think if your search for information took you into the low houses in England, you would find that the morality of the children very much resembled that of their mothers. Taking the Chinese as a race, I do not think they have a greater tendency towards outraging children of tender years than any other people in the world. lam quite clear, that in their own country, and amongst themselves, and in their own families, there is no people more careful in their reverence for the social obligations —no people who pay such respect to their parents, who more respect their wives and family relations, than the Chinese; and altogether they have a better conception of their social duties than a great many Europeans. The commonest and most degraded Chinaman will be able to read and write, and will carry his veneration for his parents to such an extent as to be scarcely conceivable to a European. Of course they thieve, as the commoner class amongst all people will do ; but 1 do not think them peculiar in that respect. 59. Mr Parker.] I would scarcely be justified in speaking of their domestic and moral qualities from what I saw of them on the diggings ; but I know of many cases in which they contracted marriages with European women, and I have always heard that they were mutually faithful. 60. The Chairman.] I don't think the virtue of young children is more likely to suffer from contact with Chinese on the diggings than from any similar body of men engaged in the same occupation and otherwise on a par in refinement. As far as I have ever seen them, they are very cleanly in cooking and in the arrangements in the interior of their houses—much more so than the lower order of Europeans, or those who might be considered as of the same class as the Chinese. I consider that civilization is more generally diffused amongst Chinamen and Hindoos than amongst many European races; but it is not spread in the same manner. You must, in making the comparison, not include our aristocratic classes and scientific men. But taking the lower classes exclusively for the comparison, you will find the Chinese and Hindoos have a juster perception of the social relations, of the laws and organization of society, and what they owe to it, and observe those conditions better than even our digging population. 61. Mr. Fttzhetbert.] What I mean is, that the European lower classes do not seem to have such a just conception of the obligations as between father and son, and mother and daughter, as the Chinese have who may be considered of the same class, relatively speaking. They are also superior in what I take to be one great test of civilization —their houses are more neatly and better kept, and their cooking is of a better description. 62. Mr. Ma andrew.] Do you mean that the instincts and teachings of civilization are more generally diffused amongst the Chinese ?—Yes. 63. The Chairman. —Are they naturally more subject to contagious diseases of certain kinds than Europeans? For instance, leprosy is a disease which is known to run in the blood of people in Eastern countries, and sometimes breaks out in the father's son or his grandson : Is it so with the Chinese ?—- Leprosy is known amongst the Chinese wherever they are found ; but 1 do not think it is more common than consumption is amongst Europeans. As a rule they may be considered a healthy race. Ido not know that the disease is so largely fatal as to be peculiar; from its very nature, however, its loathsome appearance makes such an impression on the mind, that a case, once seen, is never forgotten; but Ido not think there have been more than fifteen cases in Victoria during the many years the Chinamen have been there. In Ballarat, where there have been some cases, they were kept secluded; and generally, it results in the patients being subjected to a sort of natural ostracism. 64. Mr. Parker.] Would you recommend special legislation to prevent them being imported into this country ? —I should certainly wish to see every cargo subject to a medical examination. 65. The Chairman.] With regard to their employment on the gold fiskls, where I learn that they are largely employed ? —As a rule, they confine their operations to abandoned ground, though they do .sometimes aid considerably in the development of fields. I may instance the Chinaman's Lead, in