THE CHINESE QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 995, 27 March 1891, Page 32

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

JUDGMENT IN THE AH TOY APPEAL CASE. COMMENT OF THE TIMES. (PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) London, March 18. Lord Chancellor Halsbury delivered judgment in the celebrated Ah Toy case to-day. The Court considered the statutes regulating the admission of Chinese were intended to prevent the landing of an excessive number, and not merely to lax those who desired to enter. Where the captain of a vessel shipped an excessive number, there was no legal duty on the Collector of Customs to receive payment tendered in respect cf such immigrants. No authority exists for giving aliens the right to enter British territory. Their Lordships could not assent to the proposition that the alien who was refused entry could compel a legal decision involving delicate constitutional questions affecting the rights of the Crown, the Parliament, and the colonies. The Court purposely refrained from expressing an opinion as to what rights Victoria derived from the Crown under the Constitution. Allusion was also made

to the late Mr J ustice Kerferd’s very able judgment in the case. No costs were allowed, London, March 19.

Referring to the result of the Ah Toy appeal case, The Times remarks that it would be a misfortune if a snap judgment were to have the effect of hampering the free natural growth of constitutional relations existing between England and the great autonomous colonies.