THE DAILY PROVINCE
SEPTEMBER 04, 1908

p. 6

THE PROVINCE
W.C. NICHOL
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 04, 1908
WEALTH SENT TO ASIA.
A correspondent has asked The Province to inform his as nearly as possible
what amount of money the Oriental population of British Columbia sends out
of the country yearly. The question is one which it would be impossible to
answer except approximately and in this case approximation ranges from one
hundred thousand dollars to perhaps three million. To obtain anything like a
fair idea of the amount of money which is send from this province to Asia
annually, and for which there is no return, the business of the banks would
require to be scrutinized, and even then the full volume of transmission would
not be learned. Many returning Orientals vary with them large sums which
they convert into English money when they reach Honkong. But the leading
business men of the Chinese colony in Vancouver possess a fair understanding
of what their countrymen send in the aggregate and they place the amount
between two and three million, nearer three, perhaps than two.
The Chinese residents are, of course, those who send the large sums away. The
Japanese are not only less numerous but, as yet, they are not in the same way
of making money as the people from China and besides they do not appear to
have in the same equal degree that abiding affection for their relatives at
home and that rooted love for their native land which distinguishes the
Chinaman the world over.
The steamers plying between Vancouver and Hongkong seldom leave this
coast without carrying bills of exchange amounting to between one hundred
and fifty and two hundred thousand dollars payable to Chinamen whose
relations in this country are making fortunes for their family. As a steamer
leaves every three weeks from Hongkong, an idea of the annual tribute of
British Columbia to China may be obtained.

THE DAILY PROVINCE
SEPTEMBER 04, 1908

p. 6

Of course, it would be unfair to say that this is entirely lost money to this
country. Some of it may be, but for a very considerable portion of it value has
been given and the most ardent and embittered anti-Orientalist should
recognize this. If he does not any argument against Oriental immigration
which be might deduce from it would suffer as a consequence. But the
argument might fairly be drawn that with a white instead of a yellow
population in the province the money so sent abroad would remain here to
build up and develop the country.
Still it cannot be denied that of the Chinese population a fair proportion are
doing work which entitles them from any standpoint to do with the money
they earn whatever they choose. The Chinese domestic servant on this coast is
apparently a necessity. It is impossible to obtain white girls and it would be
absurd to say that under Crose(?) circumstances, the services of Chinamen
who clear the land, and many of them are engaged in that occupation, are of
use. Work of that kind white men heretofore have refused to do, but if our
agricultural areas are to be made available it has to be done. The Chinese
merchant class, too, must be admitted as of beneat(?) to the country.
But taking everything into account three million dollars certainly trike one as
a very imposing sum for British Columbia to pay to China yearly for the
privilege of employing its subjects in the occupations which they fill in this
province. At the recent enquiry conducted by Mr. Mackenzie King into the
Chinese claims for damages resulting from the riots in this city a year ago, the
president of the Chinese Board of Trade estimated the number of Chinamen in
British Columbia at 13,000. On a basis of $300,000 sent to China every three
weeks this would be about $250 per man per year.
Vancouver is a young country and needs all the wealth it creates and no doubt
it is desirable that the population it possesses should be one which will retain
its earnings for its own and the country’s benefit. The steps to obtain such a
population, however, must be the result of constructive legislation, not of any
attempted process of elimination such as the unthinking and impulsive
elements of the masses might resort to.