[Editor: This article, regarding a proposed ban on Chinese-made products, was published in The Week (Brisbane, Qld.), 2 October 1886.]
Chinese Competition.
When discussing the above question it will be necessary to notice that aspect of it to which one of our correspondents calls attention on another page.
The first cry raised was that everybody owning a piece of Chinese-made furniture should put an axe through it. But that, it seems, would be only a very partial remedy.
Our correspondent wants to know what about cabbages. In a day or two someone else may raise a cry about tea, rice, coffee, and chow-chow, and every other article of Chinese produce.
It will be no answer to say that some of these things cannot be produced here, and, therefore, may be allowed to pass, for if they could be replaced by articles of another sort which can be produced here, they are to be barred as thoroughly as furniture and cabbages.
The root of the subject is that we are not to allow any products raised or made by Chinese labour, if for such products good substitutes can be brought in by white labour. If one product is to be barred, all must be barred, or we shall have the cabinetmakers in high glee and the gardeners at the other end of the pole.
The question is if we are prepared to go for the abolition of everything produced by labour which is cheaper than labour to be had here. If we are we must not stop at Chinamen. There are European countries whose products must be tabooed. In short, the products of all countries whose labour is cheaper than ours must be so treated.
At first sight it looks as if the public are not ripe for that; and further, that there will be no small difficulty in carrying out so large a scheme.
Source:
The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.), 28 September 1886, p. 4 (Second Edition)
Also published in:
The Week (Brisbane, Qld.), 2 October 1886, p. 17
Editor’s notes:
chow-chow = (noun) food; (verb) to eat; also rendered as “chow” (possibly derived from a Cantonese word, rendered in English as “caau”, meaning to stir fry or to sauté)
See: 1) “chow-chow”, Wiktionary
2) “chow”, Wiktionary
taboo = a ban, prohibition, or restriction upon an activity, practice, usage, or speech, due to such behaviour because of being deemed (by convention, culture, tradition, or religious outlook) to be 1) improper or unacceptable, 2) embarrassing, offensive, or unsettling, 3) holy or sacred, or 4) profane, unclean, or unholy; taboos are commonly derived from a negative assessment based upon cultural convention, emotional aversion, moral evaluation, or social stigma; something which is taboo may be culturally forbidden, legally banned, religiously prohibited, or socially disapproved of
tabooed = made taboo, placed under a taboo; banned, forbidden, prohibited; disapproved of by cultural convention, tradition, or religious outlook [see: taboo]
[Editor: Changed “these thing cannot” to “these things cannot”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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