WHITE NEW ZEALAND.

ITS COLOURED PROBLEM. CHINESE AND INDIANS. REVIVAL OF CONTROVERSY. There has developed a controversy on the White New Zealand question which threatens to rival that which was excited when a madman shot dead an aged Chinaman as a protest against the Asiatic influx. On this occasion there has been no shooting: the ball has been set rolling by a meeting of farmers and townsmen at peaceful Pukekohe," the 'constituency of the late Prime Minister,Mr.Massey. At this meeting it was declared that there were now Hindus and Chinese in their hundreds, where a few years ago the only dark skin to be seen was that of the native Maori race, high in the scale of civilisation. In some places the Asiatics controlled the fruit trade, and at the city markets the buyers of Pukekohe produce were largely Asiatics. The increasing hold of these people, it was pointed out was very serious, because their frugality of living made it impossible for a European to bring up his family in decency to compete with them - something could be done, and must be done. Europeans must put their minds to it Cases were instanced to prove that when Chinese entered into competition with Europeans in any line of business there was only one result—the European went out of business, especially in the laundry, fruit and market garden trades. It was urged by one speaker that landowners should invariably refuse to sell or lease land or premises to Asiatics, and that merchants should refuse to deal with them. The result of the meeting was the formation of a White New Zealand League, and the carrying of a motion that landowners and business men should refrain from dealing with Asiatics. No Definite Policy. There is in this country no policy of excluding Asiatics on the lines of the White Australian policywhich is one thing that Australia is praised for here and each year sees the number of Chinese and Indians added to. either as permanent residents or as temporary visitors, who try very hard to remain here. There are not a great many Asiatics in the South Island—probably it is too cold, or too Scotch, for them but there is abundant evidence that there is an all-sufficiency of both Chinese and Indians in the north. The fruit shops whose fine displays compel admiration, are a feature of the principal streets of Auckland. They are almost entirely run by Chinese, and there is not a suburb Ito which these men. who may be seen lin their scores bidding at the auctions in the City Markets, have not "peacefully penetrated." And at various corners we see the übiquitous Indian, popularly referred to as the '"Hindu," with his stall and his piles of polishcl fruit, paying but a scanty rental for his stand. As he competes mostly with the Chinese, there is perhaps less resentment against him on the part of the European population than might otherwise be. lin this country, but as to how long it takes a newcomer to repay it is one of those secrets which are hard to clear up. It is said that a young Chinese has to labour for ycars to clear himself of the debt. Standard of Living. It is not doubted that the Indian subsists on a food standard which would not maintain a white man ill working condition, and it is this economic advantage which gives him the pull over the European when it conies to competition in trade. As for the Chinaman, hs does not live nearly so frugally as is j generally supposed. The young Chinese of to-day is emulating European stand! ards. When he has emerged from his shell, so to speak, he dons tailor-made suits, tan shoes, silk sox, white collars and expensive hats. He may be seen thus, much multiplied, about the streets or in the marts any day. As to food, he is a gastronomic expert. He buys the fattest ducks and cockerels, the choicest pork and the best cuts of butchers' meats, and he buys plentifully. it is not in denying himself food that he saves money: he is sparing in his pleasure, as the European knows pleasure, and his entertainment costs him little. However, he is often a gambler, and the sight of a Chinaman on a racecourse is so familiar as to pass unnoticed and the luck of a Chinaman with the horses is said to be amazing. There is no more law-abiding citizen a Chinese, or a "Hindoo." for that matter. 1 rarely has to face a magistrate, excepting for the committal of some technical offence Really the matter of restricting the influx of Asiatics rests with the Minisi ter in charge of the Immigration Department. He issues the permits which allow them to land and take up their residence here, and the granting of these permits are solely at his discretion. Chinese or Indians who come out here to reside have, to pay a poll tax of £100. This tax is readily found by their compatriots who sponsor tlieir arrival. His Industry and His Pay. All around Auckland, and all along the Main Trunk Line as far south a Wellington, can be seen the market gardens of the Chinese and the trading carts of the Indian hawker. In every town are Asiatic fruit shops and Asiatic laundries. At Kohimarama Chinese are said to be paying rentals of 50 pound per acre per annum for land for vegetable-growing, a rental which would well make the white owner pause when he is asked to sell at valuation for other purposes. The industry of the Chinaman is proverbial, and here it is clearly shown. In the shops his work is limited by tlle interval between the hours of opening and closing fixed by law—which are long enough, in all conscience—but in the market gardens- no summer's day jis too long for him, and in the winter I lie works' early and late by the aid of the moon or artificial light. But the I lessee of the garden may be making I a fortune by the combined labour of his assistants working out their poll tax; a similar state of affairs may be the portion of the conductor of some of the fruit shops. The Minister in charge of Immigration has, it is stated, a pile of applications for admission, which is added to by applications from Chinese who came in under temporary permits entitling them to stay for six months, seeking permanent location. Many Chinese come here under temporary permit, and, having got the wedge in, seek to split the log this way. Their dodge, however, is rarely successful. i There have been attempts at smuggling !in detected—from Suva, the latest— but ships are now .searched prior to leaving the port of. embarkation and before, being berthed here, and it is said that for an Aiiatic to enter New Zealand unperceived is almost impossible Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 300, 19 December 1925, Page 11

THE "NEW WOMAN IN CHINA.

a INTERVIEW WITH A CHINESE LADY. (specially written for the Press) WELLINGTON, February 19. A door opened, o little lady came in, a slight, gentle figure, robed, in a tunic of brown brocado, reaching to th© knee. A voluminous skirt flowed beneath. A jewelled hand was extended, tin? wide shvv** fell back, disclosing sky-blue silk lining. Th© oval, pallid face was suriutmnuxi by black, shining coils of hair, drawn tightly back irom tho lorelicad. A h-otivy Iriiigo -was worn, wrapped around' a support, which elevated it straight out over tho face—a lac© guarded and expressionless in repose, the face of a. "now woman" of China, educated in th© States., yet a quiet little lady, with a thoughtful personality -behind that- express loniess mask. The conversation proceeded in monosyllables. Then a chord was struck, and animation awoke. Tho English cam© a trillo broken, but as the t>trangcnt«M of a. foreign visitor -wore away, it flow«t fiver and luster, with hen- and ihero an American, slurring of vowels that rang sweetly. "Yes," she said, "Western learning is advancing in Chiua: It i> made cowpuWy lor children to attend school. English is the main language; but other languages aro a.i*o taught. Among the rich peoplo, the j*iris are taugnt at home. Rich Chines hove tutors foi tho children. Boys* nnd girls are taught together, girls till they are sixteen or seventeen. Then logins ilio filial preparation for marriage. There are no .spinsters in China. The women embroider a great dwil. and mako household decorations. They moke gorgeous quilts and other household l tilings. When married, they are dowered m clothes—trunks and trunks of clothes. A Chinese lady may possess «s many as four hundred suits of clothing, and, of course, jewellery- Many pairs ot braoelots, many sets of rings, bed linen, pillow shams, tables, ciuiii-s, all the necessary things for the bed. chamber will bo given a brid© by her mother. This is why iioor people find a big family of girls expensive, and) sometimes they aro sent away to foundling schools—not because they are not as dear to their parenUs' liotirts as boys. Girls aro just as loved as boys. Fathers pet the little giris greatly iv China. I havo four girls and ono boy, and my husband pefcj the girls oven more than th© boy. Everyone knows how tho Chinese, as a nation, love children. "Tho fact that a woman sat ,upon th© thron© of China did not make any difference to the position of Chinese women. 'Educated women do not think she should have reigned in place of her nephew. A nan ought to sit upon th© throne. A man is more able to govern —do you not think?—than a woman. "A few Chines© ladies are going in for modiaino. I "know several Chinese women doctors in Pekin, and a few Chinese ladies are being trained as nurses by tho missions in various parts of China. I know some girls who are studying medicine, at present in America. Tli© rich (people do not like to part with their girls to send them away from home. That is ono reason why they do not go; also, it costs a good deal. Wo have our own doctors. They are clever; even Europeans go to them. A European lady in Melbourne I .met had been cured' by a Chinese doctor. They use herbs a great deal. Our women aro educated in household matters in their own home; they learn to cook, sew, and take caro of the house." "Do men do washing in Ghana?" th© lady was asked. "No. they don't"—and here came a scornful littlo laugh—"you would not get a man to do washing at homo. The women do that, and all the household tasks"—and the voice rang with pride —"the Chinese hero do it because they can moke money at it. The Chinese in New Zealand come from a commercial part; they oome from th© south of China. Wo belong to tho middle of the Empire. I 'have been away from China for eight years. I have only been hack for two months two yearn ago. Anyone brought up in China never likes to go to another country. "Yes, foot-binding is passing away; it has been forbidden by an edict of the Emperor issued several years ago. They do not begin to bind the foot till th© girl is four or five, and then it is (bound always, day and night, or it would! expand. Tho bandages are over three feet long, and it has been vogue over three hundred years; but I know a rich lady who has just taken off th© bandages from her feet, which is painful, for tho feet are tender. I think this is the reason why the Chinese women grow so little. In China there is little loss of infant life, because there is no cows' milk to feet th© babies; each mother feeds her own baby." Th© marriage customs ar© not changing greatly, our visitor says. In the district where her home is the majority of the people are Christian. There is an American Methodist mission, and th© marriage rites ar© the rites of their Church, and of the heathen rites sh© professes to know nothing? Asked as to the subjection of woman, it appears as if woman's power to get her own way held good- in thlo Eastern as well as in the Western world, and the assurance was given that a man in China, if ho is wise, asks his wife's opinion, just as ho does in Europe, ana probably Fails to_ take it and bears th© consequences just tho same in the East as in the West. During the recent anti-Japanese demonstrations in Hong Kong the women wero the most determined opponents, and marched in procession carrying banners in tho streets. It was the first time such a thing had taken place in th© East, and created a profound impression in Chinese, Japanese, and European minds, as heralding a new era in the civilisation of th© Eastern world. Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13354, 20 February 1909, Page 9

baby Chuey Gow,

The other baby, Chuey Gow, is fifteen months old. He finds himself in prison with his mother and step-father after a curious set of circumstances. On 23rd May, Chuey Gow had his first birthday and his father, Percy Chong Gow, celebrating the auspicious ovent according to the Orient, returned home laden with a birthday cake, sweetmeats, and crackers. That night he became ill and steadily declined. Dr. J. Young Wai, the young Chinese medical graduate of the Sydney University, and other doctors failed to securo an improvement in his condition and the wo)l-to-do Chinese refused to remain iv hospital. Besides taking the medicines prescribed for him ho also obtained some of the age-old herbs of China aDd induced his wife to prepare them. Howevor, nothing availed him and ho steadily declined until tho night of 19th July when he died. Ho was buried two days later, find nine days afterwards his attractivo half.-cast-e widow married 20-year-old Ernest Percival Trapman, seaman in His Majesty's Royal Australian .Navy. Subsequently detectives secretly exhumed the body of the deud Cinnamon and submitted it to tho Government Medical Officers for examination. The stomach, according to tho Government Analyst, revealed traces of arsenic. And so, last Thursday night tho young man-o'-warsman, Trapman, and his Hong Kong brido were arrested and both were charged wit!. m,urder. There was a touching sceno as tho pair parted in the corridor leading to'the cells at tho Sydney Central Police Station. The sailor passionately caressed liis seductive Eastern bride, avid the littlo chattering Chinese baby. Tho baby, distressed by all the strange stern faces and alarmed at the cold, dark corridor, clung to the uniform of his step-father. Really, one can give some thought to the- question of the plight of the two babies and their future—one consigned to the waveß, the other (if only temporarily, perhaps) to a prison cell. Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 57, 17 September 1928, Page 9

REARED BY CHINESE STRANGE LIFE STORY AUSTRALIAN-BORN WHITE (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, August 18. "White James Innes, Sydney's Chinese," says that bad white men made him disgrace his ancestors. He blames them for encouraging him to drink, and so forget the teachings of his honourable stepfather, Soong Yee. Innes has sworn before the joss sticks to "quai pew" (reform). When he has saved enough money he will return to his wife in China. Innes is a 37-year-old Australian who was reared by Chinese foster-parents. He can speak only a few words of pidgin English. The only language he knows is the peculiar sing-song Cantonese dialect. His name in Chinese is Sue Hong Bew. Since he returned from China eight years ago he hat been employed by Chinese market gardeners near Sydney. Two weeks ago Innes got into trouble with the police, and was made lo hu (an outcast) by his adopted people. They said he had offended the gods, "H'sien, Sheng, and Tien." Because of his prayers of repentance the ban has been lifted. Innes told his story through the aid of an interpreter. He was born at Quirindi. New South Wales, where his parents worked on a farm. His father died when he was two. and his mother married Soong Yee, an elderly Chinese. When he was eight his mother died, and his stepfather 'took him to China. "I went to a Chinese school for seven years, and worked in the rice, fields," said Innes. "My father was* a kind and honourable man. He taught me never to smoke opium or play pakapoo. He bought me a Chinese wife who was known as Ah Hoy. We have a little girl named Ah Quin. She is now nine years old, but I have not seen her since she was a baby. They are waiting for me in China; if I never come back they will still be waiting. Ah Hoy is manageress of a clothing factory in Hong Kong. I wrote to her five years ago; I must write again this year Innes says he cannot learn to speak English; the language is too hard. White people he regards as foreigners. After the death of his stepfather, who was a wealthy man, but left Innes nothing, Innes came to Australia to make his fortune. Three times he has saved his fare back, but has spent it. Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 8

CHINESE WHITE WIVES. MOSTLY AUSTRALIAN WOMEN,

PITIABLE CASES IN CANTON, "You can't put it too strong. Some of the cases I have seen would make your heart bleed." Mr P. R. F. Carter,who has been living in Canton for six years, and i« passing through Sydney on his way to the Old Country, made these remarks in referring in a recent interview with a 'Sydney Morning Herald" reporter, to the increasing number of marriages of Chinese with European women. "And this," he added, "is a matter of special interest to you, because most of those women are Australians." White women, he said, were no doubt treated well enough by their Chinese husbands so long as they remained in Australasia or in any other ccuntry occupied by Europeans, but to go to live in China with their husbands was a vary different thing. "Far better for them to commit suicide than to undergo the awful sufferings that await them there, if they are not absolutely dead to all the finer feelings." This was how he put it. Not only are they ostracised by all Europeans, but they are looked down upon even by the Chinese themselves, are made the subject of the coarsest sorts of jests by the meanest of the coolies. These European women are not allowed to live in the foreign settlement —and the average Chinese house is dirty, ill-ventilated, full of vermin, and without any sanitary or p.ny sort of conveniences. A living hell is the most fitting expression I can think of, though it is not a very elegant one, to describe the lot of these poor creatures. "I'm not a soft-hearted man, but I have seen young Australian women up there la the Chinese quarters amid such conditions as would mike yQ _fc cry Jf you saw tnem A nd taey are'not all the lower class of women, either. There is one woman—an Australian well connected, well educate 1, and very good looking, too—who was living for a long time in the Chinese quarters in Canton under such conditions that I wonder she didn't go crazy. A German doctor found her through her seeking his help to save her little baby. She told him that sho had married her husband in Sydney and he had taken her to Canton, and she had to live in the midst of +he Chinese quarters ever since. She seemed to have a fondness for herband though, and wouldn't be separated from him. Some of the ladies in the European settlement interested themselves in her case, and special permission has been given to her to live in the foreign settlement with her husband, and there she is eking out an existence —an outcast as far as Europeans are concerned, and! regarded with contempt by the Chinese. It is a very pitiable case indeed, for this woman, I have been informed, was very well brought up and she has certainly all the manner; of a lady, and is well educated; and why she made this marriage is a puzzle to me. "There is another Australian woman there, who married her Chinese husband in South Africa. She has got hardened to liei lot now, and wears Chinese clothes. She is also a young woman, a little over 30, but her case is rather different from that of the other, who is a superior type of girl. There are others there, too, but those happen to have come under my own notice. "There ought to be a law prohibiting marriages between white women and Chinese. The woman who marries a Chinese loses her nationality,

And the Other Youngs on the other side - Onehunga

Used to be Youngs Fruit Shop, Onehunga - C late 1950s-C early 1960s