CHINESE RESTRICTION,

Otago Witness, Issue 1935, 26 March 1891, Page 14

CHINESE RESTRICTION,

THE PRIVY COUNCIL'S DECISION. (Peb Pbess Association.)

i London, March 17. j. Lord Chancellor Halsbury delivered judgiment in the Ah Toy case to-day. The court considered that the statutes regulating the admission of Chinese were intended to prevent the landing of an excessive number, and not merely to tax those who desired to enter. Where the captain of a vessel shipped an excessive number there was no legal duty cast on the" Collector of Customs to receive the payment tendered in respect to suchimmigrants. No authority exists for giving an alien a right to enter British territory. Their lordships could not; assent to the proposition that an alien who was refused entry could compel a legal decision involving delicate constitutional questions affecting the rights of the Crown, Parliament, and- the colonies. The coart purposely refrained from expressing an opinion as to what .right Victoria derived from the Crown under her constitution. Allusion was also made to the late Mr Justice Kerferd's very able judgment in the preliminary, case. No costs were allowed.

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.