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Mia.ourtue-»necss,5 tO fttCgetiftic*lay.you »* alent hat itul roni i to JiatPOIUwilllongHEKCHINESE QUESTION.TO T1IE EDITOR.Sir—I see l»y an item in your lasto-nUN.week's telegrams that Tasmania is the latest victim to the smallpox demon, and it seems to me its about time the people of Australia roused themselves to inquire into the cause of all this bother anil make up their minds to put a siop to it. Daring the past two years the health authorities in the different colonies have had to keep their eyes constantly skinned, and cause an appalling amount of Idoiqdiemy among ship owucra, crews, and passengers in their endeavours to prevent this disease planting itself on our hitherto uncontami nated shores. Hut in the teeth of all their precautionary measures it has again and again gained a strong lodgement, occasioi ing in each instance death, grief, widespread anxiety, and a big inroad on the public purse before being finally stamped out It would be interesting to discover exactly what sum these different outbreaks did cost tin* colonies in which tliey occurred—I think it would be fouud to amount to a pretty considerable figure. And in ever}- ease —except one, I lwdieve—the disease has Urn introduced l»v innuigrants from China. We have just passed through a small experience of the scourge on our own account, and although— tlianks to the indefatigable energy displayed l»y Dr. Wood, and our healthy situation and dry dimate—we have escaped with lt;» only one fatal case (a fact which, con-0 sideling the filthy condition of the collection of Chinese hovels in the very centre of the town, smacks largely of the miraculous), we are constantly threatened with a renewal of the trouble whilst steamers from China continue to pour into onr port a stream of filthy unwashed cooli«*s. But I’m not going to inflict up n your readers the oft n*-iterated arguments allowing the undesirability of Chin**** as immigrants—the subject is becoming monotoniHis. Resilient* in tlic Territory senl no argument* to lu-t Indore them the ruinous, dciuoral ising effect of their presence. We have only to contemplate our worked out alluvial fields, to see every industry in the place gradually l»-ing monopolimd by the Mongol, and to cull to inmd the thousands of sturdy European miners who liave just paswd by our donr disdaining to remain in such a Chinese infested IhjIc, to realise all tin- bit I ernes* of a policy whilt;-li directly encourages a rmlt;*e totally lacking every quality that aw* to make up useful im-inUrs of a fr■e democraticeianinunitv. But settingaside all tl»e objections to Im- urged against them arising from tlrir i.nmorality, tlieir habit of crowding together and swinish love of tilth, tlK-ir introduction of loathsome diseases su.-h as smallpox and leprosy, and the a ay in which their syatein of avtoriat ions enables them to monopolise every 6lt;-llt;l of lalMtur to the exclusion of the indiviilual working European, I maintain that the fact of n their being mere birds of passage — that ,, their presence means the constant draining away of the country's wealth to China -ought to In* sufficient to induri! any tiovermnent pnurvaiig a part i«-le of common sense to at once |u*u such measures wonhl render any furtherjj immigration o*i tlieir jrirt impossible.Apologising for this trespass uj*ouo i °ur *1**°-1 am. Sir, «fcc.t J.W.0oouniti»M»Oo0ooi»•iOIIu0If
Newspaper Details
Darwin North Australian
Darwin, Northern Territory, AU
Sat, Oct 08, 1887
Page 3
Full Page
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Anonymous
GB 24 Apr 2023
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