COMMONWEALTH EXCLUSION LAWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 15

COMMONWEALTH EXCLUSION LAWS.

The High Court, on the 26th ult, delivered judgment in the appeal against the decision of the magistrate whereby a Chinaman, whose father resided in Victoria, was adjudged to bo a prohibited immigrant. Loo Loon Hock I camo to Victoria in 1895, and with thu exception of twi; visits to China had resided in Victoria continuously since. In 1905 he sent ior his two sons to come to Victoria, but only one came. On arlival here he was declared to be a prohibited immigrant. Un behalf of the appellant it was contended that tho father, having abandoned his domicile of origin in China and taken up his residence oy choice here, appellant was not a prohibited immigrant. It was further urged that thci Immigration Restriction Act, as far as it applied to persons doimciiud in tho Commonwealth, wis ultra vires to tha Constitution Act. The Chiof Justice said the court had unanimously agreed that the appeal should be dismissed. Tho acquisition of a domicile* of choice by a person coming from abroad, to any country depended upon permission given by that country to enter it and make it his home. Such permission and its conditions were matters entirely within tho discrotion of tho "supremo power of tho States, and the exercise- 01 that discretion could not bo reviewed by a court of law. There was nothing in the law as it stood to suggest that permission granted to any person to enter the Commonwealth extended beyond himself personally. Any person who sought to enter tho Commonwealth from abroad was prima facie an immigrant within the meaning of (fie Act. Tho appellant could not bring himself within any recognised rule that would prevent him being regarded as an immigrant. The case was no doubt a hard one, but the court's duty was to declare, and not to make, the law.