" PEACE, PKOGRESS AND PROSPEEITY " 235 



figures it is difficult to understand how the renewed agitation was 

 worked up. It is certain that the general falling off in the produc- 

 tiveness of the goldfields had drafted a number of Chinese into 

 more settled occupations, and in New South Wales many had 

 found work on farms and stations where their industry and sobriety 

 secured them a preference. Early in 1881 a mass meeting was 

 held in Sydney to protest against this step, and one of the speakers 

 gave a tone to the discussion by moving that " every squatter and 

 farmer who employed Chinese labour should be burned out. A 

 box of matches," he added, " would work the cure." Delegates 

 from the meeting waited on the Government and demanded drastic 

 measures of restriction. The fire thus kindled spread to Melbourne, 

 where the competition of Chinese labour in the cheap furniture 

 trade was beginning to be felt. The working man, seeing only the 

 competition, ignored the fact that he and his wife, in their blind 

 worship of the fetish of cheapness, were the real supporters of this 

 branch of Chinese industry. The well-to-do classes preferred the 

 finer articles of European manufacture, despite heavy Customs 

 duties, and the middle classes, while content with colonial manu- 

 facture, were yet willing to pay a fair price for it. But if the 

 working man's wife could save ten shillings on a cheap chest of 

 drawers, no sophistry about competition would divert her from her 

 bargain. 



The surly exclusiveness of the working man, when he thinks 

 his personal interests are affected, is not curable by the most 

 powerful arguments or the most cogent reasoning. He knows his 

 strength at the polls, and he expects to get what he fancies he 

 wants. Sir Bryan O'Loghlen capitulated to the clamour, and after 

 an informal conference came into line with the New South Wales 

 Government, by reimposing the poll tax of 10 per head, and pro- 

 hibiting all ships from bringing more than one Chinese passenger 

 for every 100 tons of burden, under a penalty of 100 for every 

 immigrant landed in excess of the legal number. A degrading 

 condition was attached even to this restricted admission, that re- 

 duced the Chinaman who sought to sell his honest labour to the 

 level of a ticket-of-leave convict. He received a certificate on 

 landing, which he was required to produce to the police whenever 



