No Racial Troubles In
p. 58 · Read in the full issue
New Zealand
WHILE Australia’s policy of excluding all coloured races (including not only Asiatics, but also the friendly Polynesians of the Pacific Islands) is creating growing ill-will everywhere, a special correspondent in Melbourne “Herald” (April 13) says that New Zea land has no such problems. By good luck or good management, or by a combina tion of the two —plus an immigration policy which does not discriminate
harshly against Asiatic peoples—New Zealand has escaped all problems such as those which have recently embar rassed Australia.
A Chinese (says this writer) represented the South Island at Rugby Union football some years ago. Another had a distin guished record in the RNZAF.
In the past few months, the University of New Zealand has sponsored the fur ther training in Britain of a New Zealand Chinese student who has been acclaimed as the most promising research worker since Lord Rutherford.
There are American and West Indian negroes who have lived in New Zealand for many years. A family of Kaffirs won prominence in football in Auckland, where an Abyssinian became one of the most respected citizens.
A Tongan represented New Zealand at rugby football for several years after the war. A New Zealand Japanese, who is now a Rugby referee, was decorated for valour.
Samoans, Cook Islanders, and other Polynesians have become New Z-ealand residents in increasing numbers in recent years. For a considerable period, Fiji has sent native and Indian students to New Zealand for education at exclusive schools.
Because the admission of Chinese and Indians to New Zealand has been sub stantially confined to males, there has been a fairly appreciable degree of inter marriage, conspicuously with Maoris. The effect on the general population has been trivial, although Maori spokesmen have, from time to time, objected to Asiatic miscegenation.
New Zealanders, aware of their small numbers, do not throw open their doors indiscriminately, but they do refrain from abusing strangers at their gates. And the strangers within the gates suffer no hardship.