1870s: Whitebait Exports
May 9, 2019
By AHNZ
This is the bit interesting to me…
“Chinese miners were the first to export whitebait from New Zealand in the early 1870s. The tiny fish were caught and dried on the West Coast before being sent to China.”
As previously posted, the Chinese were also the first to recognise and start up the booming 1870s mushroom industry. In both cases, Europeans joined in and perhaps took over.ยน
During the 1880s, however, and much to our anarchist sorrow, the good and productive Chinese were ousted using the gears of the state. The Liberals, led by Seddon and Reeves, pronounced the hard working (dare I say?) New Zealanders to be ‘Yellow Scourge’ and ‘Mongolian Filth’. They passed the Chinese Immigrants Act in 1881 which put a flat tax on every Celestial wishing to disembark onto New Zealand soil.
“At least you can kill baboons”‘- Reeves
All racial/tribal groups seek to perpetuate themselves and be supreme over others, it’s natural. When they use the power of the state to do so it is the greatest injustice, tyranny, even genocide, known to man. Chinese as well as Maoris have had their turn at the receiving end of such mistreatment.
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image ref. Hokitika Museum; West Coast New Zealand History; NZH&H
1 Happily, according to NZ Geographic, the Bill Gates of NZ Mushrooms made out OK and wasn’t shafted by King Richard. Thanks Jon Colyer
Ref. Previous post about Chinese industry startups in the 1870s
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