CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 15

CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

ITS HISTORY OUTLINED.

FIRST ATTRACTED BY GOLD.

In an address, entitled "Is the World Becoming Over-populated," given under the auspices of the Workers' Educational Association on Saturday evening, Dr. E. P. Neale reviewed Chinese immigration into New Zealand.

The gold rushes of the sixties had, he said, been responsible for the Chinese first coming to New Zealand in large numbers. They numbered 5000 in the early "seventies." This total had never been passed. After the gold industry had ceased to be profitable they had drifted into other trades. A poll tax of £10 a head imposed in 1381 on all Chinese immigrants proved an effective check for several years.

The census of 1896 revealed tho following:—Gold miners, 2162; gardeners, 656; greengrocers, 132; shopkeepers and assistants, 124; fish and vegetable hawkers, 83; laundry workers, 31; and others, largely domestic, 161.

In 1896 the poll tax was raised to £100. As the arrivals of Chinese were still exceeding departures in the early years of this country, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1907 required immigrants to be able to read a printed passage of not less than 100 words in the English language. The amendment to the Act in 1920 required persons not of British birth or parentage to arrange for a permit to land.

Dr. Neale said that the Chinese was no ordinary competitor. His powers of endurance were great, his standard of living was low, and he was a born merchant. He regarded New Zealand as his temporary home, and after making sufficient money on which to retire he returned to China. The principal objection to the Chinse was probably economic.

New Zealand's population contained less than * per cent of race aliens. Tbe British subjects numbered 99.35 per cent of which 4.15 per cent were Maoris.