'A National Calamity of Shortsightedness'

A One-Hundred Year Warning Against Mass Immigration in NZ

In recent years, New Zealand has faced an unprecedented demographic shift unseen since the beginning of European settlement. It was recently announced that the surname ‘Singh’ was - for the seventh consecutive year - the most common surname for newborns in New Zealand, closely followed by ‘Kaur’ and ‘Smith’ falling behind. In the North Island alone, ‘Smith’ falls out of the top three entirely, replaced by ‘Patel’.

In 2014, the top three most common surnames for newborns in New Zealand were ‘Smith,’ ‘Wilson’ and ‘Brown’.

The Government announcement of this fact (the ministerial portfolio responsible is held by the ACT Party) is one of celebration. If we look back to our political forebears, however, what would they have to say about such occurrences?

A hundred years ago, a Parliamentary debate was held on the topic of Asiatic immigration. For educational purposes, I share with you today a very standard speech that was fairly typical of the views of New Zealanders in 1920. A speech by the former Mayor of Hamilton and MP for Waikato - Sir Alexander Young:

“Sir, we have to deal with this question as we find it in New Zealand today, and it is at present a practical one, full of realities. It is neither a theoretical nor an academic question, and it is not one going to be settled by the use of high-sounding phrases and lofty sentiments, which will lead us nowhere.

“The position is that we have a certain class of Asiatic immigrants in this country who are of no benefit to us in a social sense and in many instances of little benefit industrially. The tendency arising out of the presence of these people in New Zealand in any appreciable number would be to lower the general standard of life among the population.

“We have sprung from a different civilization, and we have ideals different from those of the East, and especially of the generality of that class of people in the East who find their way to this Dominion. The class which has come here represents mostly the coolie or lower orders of society in their native countries, and it is our duty to preserve our nationality and Western civilization against any influences that are likely to disturb our domestic ideals or lower the social standards of our people.

“The matter is one that has occupied the thought of the country for some time. In the New Zealand Herald of the 13th May, 1914, I read a letter contributed by a gentleman who was for many years headmaster in a large city school in Auckland. He was born in Ceylon and was a master of the [Sinhalese] language and also of the Native language of Southern India. His letter is of considerable importance, and, though it is somewhat lengthy, it is worthy of a place in Hansard.

“It impressed me very much at the time and I filed it for future reference. It is particularly interesting and instructive, and written by a gentleman who was well up in the subject and highly qualified from experience to express a correct view. Under the heading ‘Hindu Immigration,’ he says, -

‘Sir, I have read with a good deal of interest the letters regarding the influx of Bengali and other East Indian races into these white colonies of the British Empire. I was born in that most cosmopolitan of seaports, Colombo, and have spent many years in close touch with the Natives, both of Ceylon and South India, but have seen a good deal of many others, such as Beluchies, Afghans, Persians, Bengalis, Bombay men, Canarese, Turks, and Arabs. More than this, through being able to read, write, and speak in two of these languages - [Sinhalese] and Tamil - I may claim to have a deeper knowledge of Native modes of thought, habits, and religion than nine out of ten average Englishmen.

‘Now, the result of this experience and knowledge has driven me to the indelible conviction that it will be nothing less than a national calamity of shortsightedness or maudlin sentiment [that] leads us to allow an alien population to swamp us, or even form any appreciable percentage of our numbers.

‘I claim to speak with open mind, for my sympathies are with the East. The Orient and its people have for me an attraction that no British colony has ever had, not even America or England itself. But, in spite of this, and because of knowledge of that East, I reiterate and emphasize my conviction, and can only hope that if such an inundation is fated to take place it may not be in my lifetime.

‘My conviction on this question is based on two aspects of the Eastern man - first, physical; second, moral. The past history of the human race has, to my mind, established very clearly two facts in regard to conquest. First, if conqueror and conquered were of kindred blood and on much the same physical and moral planes, amalgamation tended to strength; the English race grew so. Second, if conqueror and conquered were of alien blood, amalgamation tended to weakness; this is seen in the half-bred races all over the world, especially in America and India.

‘Now, is it not an instinctive perception of this fact, gathered through the experience of ages, that has caused the conquering waves of mankind that have swept southwards over America, Africa, and Asia to protect their national integrity and manhood by either driving the conquered from their midst to hide in mountain and forest, or to crush them down to such a menial position that intermarriage with them was unthinkable and impossible?

‘As the result of such driving-off, we found such degraded tribes as the Tierra del Fuegans of South America, the bushmen and forest dwarfs of South and Central Africa, the Veddahs of Central Ceylon, and other hill and forest tribes found in India itself, while the Bengali has been made servile and subtle by the iron heel of endless oppression and hatred. And as a result of this integrity of national character we have the original Mexicans, the Zulus, the Abyssinians, and the warlike tribes of North India. It is this same instinct that leads the white races to arm themselves against the invasion of the darker and lower.

‘In the second place, my conviction is founded on my knowledge of the Eastern mind, and of the habits of the Eastern man as influenced and moulded by the ages of soul-enchaining superstition and idolatry and practice. The average Englishman in India fails to understand the people he helps to rule. His own religion is of the practical and common-sense sort - ‘Honour the King,’ Do good and fear not,’ and possibly ‘Fear God’ and so he fails to appreciate the fact that to the Eastern his religion forms his every fibre, physical and moral, guides and controls his every action from rising to sleeping.

‘You may use the name of his God in vain and the Englishman takes no notice; insult him and he knocks you down. Trample on, spit on, and abuse the Native, and he smiles and salaams; abuse his religion and you have a life enemy.

‘And such a religion! It lies like an awful pall of hellish sin over the minds and consciences of the people of India. A religion that inculcates lasciviousness; that sets up the symbols and teaches the worship of the human sexual organs. A religion that drives the widow to the [Sati] pile; that throws the surplus offspring to Mother Ganges; that teaches merit in the suffocation of aged parents by a throatful of sacred mud; that encourages the worship of [Kali], the goddess of murder and thugism; that enjoins the good action to acquire merit or future reward; that laughs at altruism; that surrounds its temples with debauchery and prostitution; that has more terms for the expression of carnal pleasure than any other language I know; that insists on the sacredness of animal life and animal excrement, so that vermin and filth abound; whose 'holy' men are living objects of vermin, filth, and degradation; that condones lying, deceit, and torture; that condemns its womankind to child marriage and the after-life of a chattel, and makes bestial satyrs of its mankind; and that teaches its devotees to drink the water in which the feet of a Brahmin have been washed, and which allows sacred tanks to be used for bathing, washing, and drinking.

‘I take my Tamil lexicon, and what do I find there? The ruins of a noble, elegant, and wonderful language, whose roots were in the ages before Christianity; but over it all I find the slime of sin and superstition, which has eaten as a canker into the very being of the people. For every word of purity I will turn you up two of bestiality and sensual worship.

‘Now, can any thoughtful or sensible person, any true Englishman, stand up and urge that this or any other Christian white country should open its gates and welcome, or even allow, the advent of numbers of people whose minds and habits are so tinged and moulded by the forces of ages of superstition?’

“That letter was written in May, 1914, and I have taken this opportunity of placing it on record. It is an important statement, which I leave for what it is worth, because it is the expression of an expert in regard to these people. We have heard a great deal said in this debate about the Chinaman, as well as the Hindu. The Chinaman seems physically and industrially to be of a superior type to the Hindu who comes here; therefore we must make laws and regulations for our own protection.

“This is a British community, with its own ideals and traditions; and it is for us to state definitely, and without any of the refinements and make-believes of diplomacy, exactly what it is that we want, and to see that our desires are given effect to. The Hindu in this Dominion seems to me to be potential of the greatest menace to our national integrity.

“I have in my hand the July issue of the Journal of the Department of Health in which I find this under the heading ‘Hindu Immigrants’ -

‘It has been reported to the Department that many Hindu immigrants report shortly after admission to New Zealand for treatment for tuberculosis.’

“And again:

‘The Port Health Officers are instructed to examine stringently every Hindu immigrant landing in the Dominion, and to report to the Customs Department any such person whose physical condition leads him to believe he is infirm and in the New Zealand climate may become a charge on the public or any charitable institution. We know that Hindus come from a hot climate, and are naturally not so immune to the rigours of our temperate climate, and we have evidence already that such persons do become a charge.’

“That is an official statement, made under the authority of the Minister of Public Health. The responsibility rests upon the Government, in order to protect the health of the public, to see that people of that character are not permitted to come to this country. We have imposed upon the immigrants from Asiatic countries certain educational tests, which are based upon the theory that these persons shall be able to read and write in English. But we have had experience in our law courts where certain Hindus have been before the Bench, and they could neither read nor write their own names in English.

“A year or two ago a Hindu was before one of the Military Service Appeal Boards, and clearly did not know what he was there for. The Board tried to explain that his case was dismissed - that his appeal, brought by the military authorities against having to serve, was granted - and they had to resort to dumb signs and ‘shoo’ him away like one does fowls, or a dog, or other dumb animal, because he was unable to understand the explanations. And that was a person who had been admitted by the New Zealand Customs authorities as one who could read and write in English.

“We need to have three important tests. The first, a rigid educational test: we should demand of all foreign adult immigrants that they should pass a test at least equal to what we make compulsory for the children in our State schools. Second, we should insist on a rigid physical and medical test: there should be evidence that the persons who arrive in this country are of sound physical constitution, and are not likely to break down in health in this climate and so become a charge upon the charity of the State. Thirdly, we should, if at all possible, have some character test, some declaration from the responsible official authority in the country from whence they came that the persons who are desirous of entering into New Zealand are clean, respectable people, and do not belong to the criminal class.

“We have already had experience in New Zealand of people from India who turned out to belong to the criminal class, and they followed the channels of crime in this country. Anything that can be done to restrict Asiatics from among the lower orders of society from coming into this country should be done. We must preserve the national integrity of our own people, and give no opportunity to Asiatics to populate this Dominion to the disadvantage of our own kith and kin.”