Nothing changes - Wellington 1914

WELLINGTON A PIEBALD CITY

TO THE KDITOIt. Sir,— "The sunset o^ life gives u» mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." I have noticed during the last few years a great increase in the number of Chinese in this city, and many of the newcomers are mere boys of 20 yea^e and under, lam frequently in the principal streets between the horn's of y and 12 a.m., and it often seems that half the men 1 meet are Chinese. The dens, shops, and laundries of these aliens exist all over the city, from tb* Tinakori Hills to Seatoun, and from. Kaiwarra to Island Bay, and the keepers of these dens, shops, and laundries seem to prosper and thrive exceedingly. Every residential Btreet where these Mongolians get a footing and congregate at once degenerates and becomes a> Chinese slum. Everybody who has any respect for themselves or their families moves away and tho street becomes tho resort of the worst of the lowest class in the city, and ultimately whciv ihe Chinese outnumber the white residents the streets or locality Binks to the level of. Haining-htrcet or Little Bourkc-streol, Melbourne, Lower George-&ti'oet, Sydney, or to the lovel of Chinatown in Now York or San Francisco, A considerable and increasing number of Chinoso and half-breed Chinese children are being educated in eomo of our State schools, and by tho close aßsociatiwi of the young of both races the creation of a mongrel race of half-breeds is thus being expedited .by the Government at tlie expense of the heavily overtaxed ratepayers of this white community. As the children of Chinamen take no part or intercii ' tho sports, etc., that takes up so-. •>>»> of the waking hours and thoughts' white youngsters, they havo so much more time and thought for study, and will, in the natural order of things, carry off all the priaes, scholarships, and bursaries provided for the young people of our own race and blood. In the great universities and colleges ot the Commonwealth, founded for and maintained by our own countrymen, an increasing number of Chinese and mongrel half-breeds are going straight for all the great prizes and beat-paid professions, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. Thirty or forty years ago the £100 poll tax was no doubt effective, but now it is not, as there are so many wealthy Chinese settled in all our cities and towns, as well as in the great seaport towns and cities of China, who are ready to advance the poll tax, knowing that any Chinaman can save that amount m twelve months after landing here, and that they will get good interest for their ' money. Nor is the education test of much uae, as the great Chineso cities of Canton, Hongkong, Singapore, Shanghai, and others, are under British control, and, of course, the schoolmaster is abroad there, and schools, colleges, and universities are now established. Many millions of Chinese can be landed in Australia and New Zealand by the big shipping companies of Japan and other countries at £?- per head. When I was iti Cooktown, Queensland, in 1874, tho companies were landing them at therate of 1000 per month, and none of them starved, and they made for Ihft gold fields at once. That was bofoio the £100 was placed on their 'heads. A great and bitter cry has been raised by a blubbering section of the community because" it, mew handful of whits boys of our own kith and kin have been recently brought out here from our homeland, bub tho Chinese employers are at perfect liberty to import as muoh Mongolian boy labour as they requiio from Canton, Hongkong, and other Chinese cities. Vet not one word is paid in opposition to them. Hero and in Australia the while race seems to become more and more reconciled to the Chinese, and more und more inclined to receive them on equal terms and to share with them these grand young countries, which we have received 'as ( a noble inheritance from tho groat white race from which we have descended. "The prido of race" seems to be "as dead as a door nail" in the English people of this and the rising generation, and they are as ignorant of the history, traditions, and achievements of tho great race from which they have do scended as the wandering Arabs who eke out a starving existence by grazing their flocks of sheep and goats over tho ruins of tho great cities of Nineveh and Babylon. It is only the "pride of race" that can save the white people of the Pacific Ocean from gradual absorption and ultimate extinction by tho rapidly increasing 500 millions of Mongolians, Tartars, and Chinese, or the 360. millions of black-skinned vaces of India, who aro our next-door neighbours in this hemisphere. The white race here and in the Commonwealth stands to>day in exactly the same position to the Chinese as tho Maoris did to the white settlers in New Zealand in 1845. It is well within tho range of probability that the opening years of the next century will boo , a mighty struggle between tho countless millions of the yellow races of China and tho teeming millions of black races of India for the final possession and control of Australia and New Zealand.— l am, etc., J. H. COLLIER. , Northland, 16th February, 1914.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 41, 18 February 1914, Page 8