First Goldminers to NZ 1875

[NZBC]

Although the Chinese are not a class who we would covet as colonists, nor country we wont lil desire to under the immigration policy, on the other hand, we ..Moiifjst those who would prohihil i<r >ij-...ij2;igu tliwr iiumigrntion, when, as always been the case, they come upon their own responsibility, and at their own cost. When first tho Celestials began to arrive in Otago, there was a groat outcry. Petitions were presented to Parliament to prevent their landing in New Zealand, and a great deal of nonsense was written about the calamities which would befall the colony were they allowed, as in Victoria, to settle in our midst. The writer of these lines remembers the landing of the first Chinaman on the Dunedin wharf, and how he was hooted and hunted by tho mob as if he were a wild beast, and with what excitement and expressions of evil foreboding the first cargo was received direct from the "Flowery Land." But the result has not ben so very serious to Otago after all. Worked-out goldfields —that is, worked-out from a European point of view—have been resuscitated, and have maintained large numbers of Celestials new areas have been opened, water-races cut, dams built, and ground that was starvation to a white man was—and is now being—made to yield returns counted as manificent fortunes to the foreigners and which, more than else, have assisted in maintaining the gold returns of Otago, consequently increasing its revenue from that source, as well as from fees, licencos, registrations, &c. There has been no need for any increase in tho number of the polico force out of proportion with that which it would havo boon necessary to provide for tho same number of Europeans for tho Chinese aro orderly, well-behaved, and industrious. The same senseless outcry with which tho Chinese woro first received in Otago is being reiterated in Queensland. As say senseless, because the opposition to the almond-eyed intruders proceeds, not from fear for the welfare of tho colony, or that its peace and prosperity will be ondarigered by tlieir presence, but from jealousy of tho industry displayed by tho Chinese in tho working of auriferous ground, and a dog-in-the-manger spirit, which cannot" itself, and thereforo would not," have others. Tho news of tho arrival of a vessel from Hongkong at Townsvillo with two or throo hundred Chinamen en route for Cooktown, is telegraphod through Australia with tho same evidenco of alarm as if a lilaguo had broken out or an earthquake had destroyed si city. Riota aro reported to bo incipient and tho terrors of Lambing Flat are threatened and in meetings of miners havo been held in Brisbano and Palmer to petition Parliament to issuo prohibitive) regulation against tho landing of the Chinese in Queensland. Strangely enough, on the top of news to this eflect, comes the following item:—"Latest accounts from tho Palmer are very good. Whites and Chinese are doing well. In some cases the Chinese are making jt oz. to 1 oz. per day from ground left by tho ■whites." A correspondent of the Sydney AToniing Herald, writing from Townsvillo on tho subject of the so-called Chinese invasion of Cooktown, very properly deprecate tho outcry against the invadurs," and while shewing that tho climate of the Palmer is peculiarly fitted for a Chinese goldficld, draws anything but an inviting picture for tho white man. See tho incoming Palmer men, he says, Mow the llesh has left tlieir bones, how gaunt and haggard, 3'ellow-eyed, and aged, they are—with all the spring and elasticity of their constitutions gone with the fresh red and whito of their national complexion. They havo gut g"ld, may be—ay f and what is far more important, they have drunk deep of the Palmer pestilence, and carry with them the seeds that will ripen into disease they havo lived ten years in one. This is no overdrawn picture—the last few months have been pregnant with disease and death. The disastrous rush to the Normanby and Laura opened up a fresh fever-stricken field, and scores have only been purchasers of death, when they bought their stores for the New Rush.' The country upon the heads of the rivers lias proved peculiarly unhealthy, and tho number of sick and dying who have sought relief in our hospital is exceptionally largo. The Chinaman, however, seems to keep his health well where we dwindle and die and I see no reason to duuht that lie will eventually occupy by far the greater portion of the extensive fields of the Palmer." While tho European will not work ground yielding lrss than I ox. per day, and thinks f< dwts. .sheer waste of time, the Chinaman deems it a fortune, and is content to work hard and patiently for far less, and though it is quite truo that ho occupies tho ground abandoned by white men, to their eventual exclusion in case of ill-luck further afield, yet it seems a sad waste to leave wealth useless and unused in the earth because whito men can only turn their attention to it when other speculations fail." We should think so indeed. This intelligent correspondent adds that to urge against them that they are not eettlers or colonists is no avgument at all not one digger out of a thousand ever becomes a settler on tho soil, and not one out of ten thousand will over be so in this part of tho colony. In fact, experience hero shewn us that the first thing a digger does on making a pilo is to go south by the very first boat, nor is ho at all likely to return unless compelled by dissipation or improvidence. A fow successful diggers settle hero in business, but nono of them would admit for a moment that they do bo for any other object than that of getting enough to retire south" on. In fact, no European would eettlo hero from choice—tho climate isbad, antlhisinstincts warn him to leavoit. In the face of all these, added to the fact that tho mueh-maligucd intruders aro in some cases making half-an-ounco to an ounce per day from ground left by the whites," the Queensland Government talk of listening to tho outcry of a parcel of interested grumblers, and of levying a heavy poll-tax and specially prohibitive licence fees upon a class of inen who prove themselves far more industrious than thoso who object to their presence, and whoalone aro adapted to work in that colony without ultimately becoming a chargtt upon its hospitals and charitable institutions. It is also objected against the Chinaman that liis morals are not only loose but repulsive, but the charge has como to bo believed as well grounded nioro from frequent iteration than from any foundation in fact. Against thoso charges there could not bo offered a better or more complete answer than that afforded in a letter addressed recently tothe Melbourno/lryu* by Mr. Monckton Synnot, and which we consider sufficiently interesting to re-publish in another column. In New Zealand the Chinese have not yet exhibited any vicious proclivities, and as colonists they are far in advance of some of thoßo we havo introduced amongst us at considerable expense and under our boasted immigration scheme. The dislike to tho Chinese as colonists is simply one of sentiment, and is not based upon any reasonable or .substantial grounds whatever. As it has died out to a very great extent in this colony, bo it will becomo removed in Queensland if the Government of that colony does not allow itself to bo either threatened or bullied by a few discontented ne'er-do-wells, who are always to be found in the van of overy new goldlfeld. New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4233, 8 June 1875, Page 2