The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1890-03-04
CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

The ministerial reply on the Chi
nese question has attracted deserved
attention abroad, as the article re
printed in our columns from the
Sydney Daily Telegraph shows
While this article is not entirely fret
from error, its comments are in the
main Just. 1t is a mistake, however
to suppose that this is a country
naturally less in need of protection
from Chinese immigration than
others. On the contrary there is
none which naturally needs such
protection more. America and Aus
tralia have territory of vast size,
with large quantities of unused
arabic land, with sparse popula-
ton, a wealth of undeveloped re-
sources, and a constantly and rap
idly growing demand for labor. All
these conditions tend to mitigate
the evils arising from the competi-
ton of cheap labor. In the very ma
ture of the case, the influx of Chi
nese might continue for genera
ton before it could assume really
dangerous proportions.
With us here the case is entirely
different. Our country is mere dot
on the surface of the ocean, our total
population, trife, our market for
labor necessarily so limited that the
influx of few thousand men at any
time would glut it. In the United
States and the British colonies, the
matter is merely one of dealing with
a more or less serious inconvenience.
With US it is struggle for existence.
There is absolutely nothing to pre-
vent an incursion of Chinese into
this Kingdom which would actually
swamp its entire foreign, as well as
native population, and reduce it to
the position of dependency of the
Chinese Empire. The different in
dustrial conditions prevailing in
Asiatic countries make this kind of
peaceful invasion and conquest per-
fectly possible for any race possess
ing the requisite energy. That the
Chinese possess this energy has been
abundantly demonstrated. That the
hardship and pressure of their exis-
tence at home make immigration q
necessity is equally we'll known.
The question which Hawaii has to
face is a much more serious one than
that which knocks at the doors of
other nations. Shall we allow the
light of western civilization, which
has so lately dawned on these ISL
ands, to be extinguished? No fact
Is more certain than that civilization
is dependent on economical condi-
tons. Europe cannot sink to China's
industrial level without exchanging
her light for China's half-light. 1t |
is no exaggeration to say that the
very existence of everything which |
makes our lives worthy and worth |
living, is involved in the Chinese
question as it presents itself here.
This is not at all true, or not true
in anything like the same degree, in
any other land. If we, under such
circumstances, have not the right to
legislate in our own defence, than
the right of self preservation must in
very truth be obsolete.
Every nation has a right to fight
for whatever it has achieved worth
preserving. In this struggle it is of
course bound to preserve a due re-
gard for the rights of other nations.
But the most Jealous advocate of the
doctrine of Unborn" rights, never
pretended that the right to leave
ones home and settle in the territory
Of foreign power without that
powers consent, was one of the in
born rights. 1t has always been Gus
tomary to lay disabilities of various
kinds on foreign residents, and while
the more liberal and human spirit of
modern times has led in large
measure to the abolition of such dis
abilities, 1t is still competent to any
to revive them, when
ever it does so in the interests of
This is the basis of our
moral right to legislate against
Chinese immigration. 1t is the fact
hat the interests of our civilization
are bound up with those of our work
ng class. The social problem, the
economical problem. is the problem |