OUSTING THE EUROPEAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3356, 24 October 1911, Page 5

OUSTING THE EUROPEAN.

CHINESE CAPTURING ISLAND TRADE. THE YELLOW PERIL APPROACHING THE ANTIPODES. [SPECIAL TO TIMES. 3

AUCKLAND, Oct. 23. By the steamer Maheno yesterday there arrived in Auckland a party of 47 Chinese, en route to Tahiti. The Island boat now almost regularly carries large numbers of Chinamen to Papeete each month, and the total for the past 12 months is considerable. Where they go and what they do when they get there is a question fraught with a certain amount of interest, and was the subject of an interview this morning with Mr. J. A. Phillips, a wellknown resident of Tahiti, at present on a visit to Auckland.

“Where do the Chinese go to?” said Mr. Phillips. “Well, that’s not altogether easy of explanation. _ For' years past they have been arriving at Papeete in large numbers, but just where they drift to is a problem. The party to leave Auckland by the Navua on Wednesday will probably do as most previous parties have done. For a while, perhaps a fortnight, they will do casual work on the plantations, then they will disappear. The Chinese in Tahiti, as a type, are above the ordinary. Very few are coolies, and mostly they belong to the merchant class. At the present time the Chinese population totals well on a thousand, and is fast reaching the combined strength of the European population; moreover, they bid fair to monopolise trade. At present the biggest business in Papeete is carried on as a branch concern by a well-known Auckland firm, but the principal French and German houses complain that the Chinese are _ gradually underselling and monopolising the whole of the native trade. They have established a name for integrity, and have steadily increased their influence, until it embraces all the islands in. the group. The vanilla trade is entirely in the hands of John Chinaman, ana his influence throughout the group is extending all the while. The Chinese immigrant, however, does not come to swell the long established Celestial population of Papeete. Each group of new arrivals becomes “swallowed up,” and presumably goes into different islands to complete the network by which most of the native trade is drawn into the hands of the Chinese merchants. The extraordinary thing is, however, that almost every month conies a new batch of Chinese, and just where they disappear to is something that even the European resident in the group cannot quite explain. The French Government imposes no_ substantial embargo upon their advent, and very few go out, while hundreds come in.”