Chinese In New Guinea

A Problem Without a Solution

OIDE by side with the problem of the sophisticated native in New Guinea, there is another problem what to do with the steadily increasing Chinese population.

The Chinese got a footing there during the confusion of the war period. They had been brought in by the Germans, and remained there during the period of Australian military occupation.

When civil administration finally was established in 1921, it was too late to deport the Chinese, and they became established too.

They came in originally as labourers but, in the years since 1914, they have become traders and artisans, demanding European standards of remuneration, and turning up their noses at any kind of ordinary, unskilled labour. They are increasing rapidly in numbers, and are displaying an increasing tendency to dis place Europeans in the higher-class oc cupations. Already, most of the native trading is in their hands. The younger Chinese will not take jobs—they either hang around Chinatown (and there is now a Chinatown in Kavieng, Madang, Salamaua, and Kieta, as well as in Rabaul) or they get out in the bush with a little trade store.

Recently, the Administration planned to improve the efficiency of the Rabaul telephone exchange by replacing the nat ive operators with Chinese girls, educated in the mission schools. It was quite a good idea, but it did not work. The Chin ese girls demanded wages and conditions that could not be agreed to.

It is a problem that must give the Administration headaches. If the com munity would only remain stationary, some suitable way of using the Chinese in Newl Guinea might be found. But the Chinese know nothing of the doctrines of Malthus, and the problem keeps on growing.