Note 4 — The Chinese

In 1886 the universal depression, which was first manifest in this Colony in 1884, still continued. Remedies of most original character were suggested in the public organs and private circles, and a renewed spasmodic tirade was directed against the Chinese. A petition, made and signed by numbers of the retail trading class, was addressed to the Sovereign; but it appears to have found its last resting-place in the Colonial Secretaryʼs waste-paper basket. The Americans in the United States and Mexico were in open riot against the Celestials—the Governments of Australia had imposed a capitation tax on their entry4—in British Columbia there was a party disposed to throw off its allegiance to Great Britain rather than forego its agitation against the Chinese. Why should not the Chinese be expelled from the Philippines, it was asked, or at least be permitted only to pursue agriculture in the Islands? In 1638, around Calamba and along the Laguna shore, they tilled the land; but the selfishness and jealousy of the natives made their permanence impossible. In 1850 the Chinese were invited to take up agriculture, but the rancorous feeling of the natives forced them to abandon the idea, and to seek greater security in the towns.