Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1881. THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS BILL.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 138, 15 June 1881, Page 2

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1881. THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS BILL.

The Chinese Immigrants Bill, introduced in the Honse of Bepresentatives by the Hon. Major Atkinson, is intituled " An Act to Regulate the Immigration of Chinese." It is comparatively short, containing sixteen clauses. The second clause provides that the Act shall only come into operation ¦when the Governor in Council is satisfied that the number of Chinese in the Colony exceeds 5000 souls. "When his Excellency is so satisfied, he is, by Order in Council, to deolare the Act to be in operation from and after a date to be specified therein. " Chinese" are defined to be " any persons born of Chinese parents and any native of China or its dependencies, or of any island in the Chinese seas, not born of British parents." The principal operative clause is No. 4, which provides that the owner, charterer, or master of any vessel which arrives in any New Zealand port having on board a greater number of Chinese passengers than one to every ten tons of her registered measurement, is to be liable on conviction to a penalty of £10 for each Chinese passenger in excess so carried. The master of any vessel having Chinese on board is, immediately on arrival, to furnish to the Collector of Customs a list of such Chinese, specifying the name, birth-place, apparent age, and former place of residence of each. IPor failure to comply with this provision he iB to be liable to a penalty of £200. It is further enacted that before making any entry at the Customs, and before any Chinese shall be permitted to land, the master of the vessel shall pay to the Collector of Customs £10 lor each Chinese passenger, and no entry at the Customs is to have any l°gal effect until such payment shall have been made. This does not apply to any Chinese among the crew of the vessel, unless he lands with the intention of remaining in the colony. Fpr failure to pay the above sum, or for permitting any Chinese to land before it is paid, the master is to be liable, in addition to a penalty of £20 for each separate offence, and in addition to all these penalties, the vessel is to be forfeited, seized, condemned, and disposed of in the same manner as for other breaches ot the Customs laws. On the prescribed payment being made, the Collector is to give to each Chinese unasked, a certificate to that effect ia a form provided, and such certificate is to be legal evidence of payment. The moneys thus received are to be paid into the Public Account, and if within three years after this landing any Chinese, for whom the present payment has been made, shall leave the colony and go beyond the seas, the money is to be repaid to him on board the vessel by which he leaves, provided before his departure prove to the satisfaction of the Colonial Treasurer. (1) That during his residence in the colony, he has not been imprisoned for any offence. (2) That he has paid all penalties imposed on him

while in the colony. (3) Thatheha3 paid all ' expenses incurred on his behalf in connection with any hospital, asylum, charitable institution, &c , &c. (4) That no expense or charge has fallen upon the revenue for his support. Failing such proof, within tho specified period, the money is to go into the Consolidated Fund and become the property of the Colony. Any Chinese attempting to enter the Colony in defiance of these restrictions may be summarily arrested and held to bail until he pays the prescribed sum, and a penalty of i>lo in addition. It i 3 further provided in regard to all penalties under the Act that | they shall be recoverable in a summary way, that Justicps, on due seenrity being given, may fix a time for their payment not exceeding two monthß, and that any penalty may be remitted by the Governor. On the Act coming into force every Chinese already in the Colony may apply for and obtain a certificate of exemption from payments under the Act, and a similar certificate of exemption may be granted in case of temporary absence from the Colony. All necessary regulations under the Act may be made by the Governor in Council. Such are the provisions of this important bill, which, as a whole, has our hearty approval, and will, we hope, speedily pass into law. There is one point in rpgard to which its provisions, which otherwise are exceedingly stringent, strike us as inadequate. We refer to that fixing the number of Chinese passengers which a vessel may bring to the Colony. One to every ten tons of the vessel's measurement doe* not give sufficient restriction on the immigration of Chinese, should anything like a Mongolian rush set in toward our shores. Under this rnle the Wakatipu and Te Anau, for instance, could bring 115 and 102 respectively without incurring any penalty. We notice that in some of the Australian Colonies it is proposed to make the reduction tenfold more stringent, by limiting the introduction of Chinese to one for every 100 tons of tho vessel's measurement. A modification of the bill in this direction is desirable, but otherwise the restrictions are tremendously severe. Few captains would care to incur the forfeiture of their vessel in addition to heavy pecuniary penalties. If, as we anticipate, this bill becomes law during the present session, it should prove a complete safeguard against the affliction which our American Cousins so expressively term the " yellow agony."