The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-10-31

out, lnOu5n ne may I'VE III perfect
freedom according to his own no.
tions of comfort and happiness, he
does not, as in Singapore, adopt
the country as his home he sends
his money to China, intending to
follow it as soon as he shall have
enough, and, except in rare cases,
he does not build himself d grave.
His bearing, too, when rich,
which in Singapore and Penang is
quietly proud and somewhat AFRO
giant, is IN Java much more " child
like and bland for be is made to
feel that he is ia the country on
sufferance only.
The system under which he is
admitted is simple and practical.
The question for the Dutch Gov
ernment to solve was, how to OBJ
tain all the advantages of Chinese
immigration with q minimum of its
drawbacks, and they have succeed
ed admirably. No one is admitted
whose name has not been first
registered at the office of the Cap
tain of Chinese" who has under
him a lieutenant. These officials
are responsible, to certain extent,
for the good conduct of all new
corners.
The captain or lieutenant, as the
case may be, is always a man of
wealth and of good character and
reputation, and bis title, to which
no salary or emolument is at
tached, gives him the correspond
ing social position Of a lieutenant
or captain in the army. This opens
to him the salons of the guberna-
torial palace on reception days,
and consequently of those of the
elite of society. On gala days our
friend may be seen, dressed in his
richest brocades, in his barouche,
drawn by splendid horses, with
magnificently attired coach and
footmen.
Has a crime been committed and
a Chinaman is justly suspected of
it, the local captain or lieuten-
ant" who is perfectly Gun fait " as
regards the different clans or secret
societies in his district, soon ferrets
him out. Is there a mob-rising or
other serious disturbance of the
peace in contemplation, he gives
timely notice to the Government,
and in nine cases out of ten, the
are enabled and
shipped out of the country, before
the public hears anything of the in
tended disturbance.
Besides this careful watch kept
on all his actions, the Chinaman's
place of residence is confined to
certain districts along the Coast.
In these he may live as he likes,
without interference, but from the
interior generally and the native
Villages in particular, he is care
fully excluded. Except in the
Chinese districts, he can on no pre-
text become the owner of real
estate.
But the son of Cathay" adapts
himself with wonderful pliability to
all conditions, and in Java he has
compensated himself for the want
CT freedom of action in the interior,
by absorbing all the traffic along
the coast. Here he is the absolute
master; he has become the indis-
pensable middleman between the
European merchant and the native
consumer, and without him banks
and mercantile firms would scarce
ly have a raison d'etre.
The Chinese population in Java
was formerly much more numerous
than now. In 1870 there were 200,-
900 of them in Batavia alone, in
1882 there were not more than
100000 IN the whole islands.
This goes to prove that in coun-
tries where the white man is not
dependent on him for agricultural
labor, his activities in other direc-
tons may still be very useful with
out their overrunnlng the country.
The conclusions to be drawn
from what l have seen of the China
man in the early days of California
(I went there in the beginning of
1861 and what l have seen of him
subsequently in the East, are to the
effect that in countries where the
white man can live and work the
Chinaman is not, in the long run,
formidable rival to HIM. The
powers needed to sustain life on the
minimum of food are not by any
means the only ones to be reckoned
with in the struggle for supremacy.
Chinese labor seems supplementary
to white labor. 1t has not, speaking
broadly, superseded 1t anywhere,
and seems little likely to do so.
Several special commissions have
sat in California for the purpose of
receiving evidence on this question,
and the tendency Of that evidence
is to show that but for that labor
California would be far from afford
ing such an opening for white labor
as it does to-day.
The Chinese have opened two
doors for white labor where they
have closed one. Thus the pros
perity of California is in a large
measure due to the railroads that
have opened up the country and
given it markets. When their con-
struction began the country was
sparsely populated, and they could