The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-10-05
II PACIFIC
Commercials
SATURDAY,. OCTOBER ).
Prom the Evening Chronicle. wellington. y. q
The Chinese Scare.

While we would decry agitation, yet on thi.
subject the most conservative of minds become
alarmed. While there is danger OF Chinese immi-
grafton, the cause Of agitation and anxiety viii
exist. Our theory is not one Of repression, but
Of voluntary obedience to laws which represent
public opinion. The people OF New Zealand
are widely separated from the mass of their
countrymen in distance, but they yield to none
in the traditions. They Left their homes to
come here to meet with new and strange con-
ditions Of life they have toiled, aud they have
made for themselves comfortable, happy homes,
and they are able, aye, and willing too, to work
and improve their conditions. But, introduce
among this people a foreign element, incapable
Of assimilation, alien in race, tradition, customs.
and social habits, and what becomes Of the
white laborer and the willing artizan. Such a
presence will eyentuate, not in a blending of
peoples of a common race. but in a certain
conflict Of races this is a question of time and
numbers
The source and centre of our civilization, of
the institutions we believe to be its highest
outgroWth, is the family take away this bond
of family, this feeling which Identifies home
with country, the ties Of blood which give the
strongest kinship of race, from our civilization,
and what is there left which is worth retaining ?
The immigration which comes 10 US from
kindred races, and plants the family on the soil
is welcome; it adds to our strength, and be-
E"AS - - OfA RSODANs DAE AAt
immigration which does not come under these
conditions, attacks the foundations of both our
social and political systems. The Chinese can
never become an essential element in our social
system. When two peoples on the same
soil are nearly alike, thew work together as a
harmonious whole, as the Saxon and Norman in
England, but where differences are great, discord
and strife must ensue in proportion 10 the
difference of sentiment, and the persistence
OF type, rather let us wait the natural growth
and influx OF our own race, fill our splendid
and prolific young country with a contented
people, men owning their own homestads, who
have come to live and die in the land of their
adoption. We do not want slaves in COMPETE
ton with our own flesh and blood. Such a COM
petition is one-sided, unjust, and unholy. 1t is
idle to say the labor mart should be open to
free competition. The slave without u family
leaves no room for the white man with one.
The former merely robs the latter. 1t is more
necessary to peace, progress, and good order,
that the daily laborer should be satisfied with
the conditions of his life, and the rewards of
his toll, than the banker, the merchant, or the
capitalist. His burden is heavy, and he should
not be deprived Of hope, which is the solace
of his toll, that his children may obtain the
prizes which fortune has denied to him. Deny
him that hope, and you substitute the sullen
aequiesence of caste, or the open revolt of
Communism.
When the common interest of lobor speaks,
statesmen must heed its voice. Chinese immigra-
ton not only cheapens labor, but drags it down
to It's own degrading level. Even prison labor
cannot compete with it. Wherever this people
are found they belong to companies, whose slaves
they are and their officers hold them in strict
control, and have an interior control over them
which 1t is impossible for our authorities to sup
press.
Already two-ffths of the male adults in Califor-
mia arc Chinese, and who has not heard Of the
distress they have brought about among the work
ing classes there. Competition is out of the
question, to the working man with a wife and
family to support, educate, and clotbe. against
one who hordes with a lot of his cOuntrymen
who can each subsist on Sd per day, and his
necessities are otherwise reduced to an absolute
minimum. They are constantly coming to our
shores, true, not many at a time but g many a
meickle makes a muckle," and when the sore be-
comes a ranking one, it will then be too late to
prevent the evil which could now be stopped by
judicious legislation. Oh then do not let labor
with us become either degraded or disreputable.
But let us uphold and extend freely, a willing
and helping hand to the bone and sinew of our
country-To THE WORKING MAN.