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1889. NEW ZEALAND.

DESPATCHES FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE GOVERNOR, AND FROM THE GOVERNOR TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of liis Excellency.

THE CHINESE QUESTION. (Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, 23rd January, 1888. I have the honour to transmit to you, for communication to your Government, a copy of a letter from the Eoreign Office, enclosing copy of a note from the Chinese Minister at this Court, calling attention to the position of Chinese in Her Majesty's colonies. I should he glad if your Government would furnish me with a report on the subject of any exceptional legislation affecting Chinese subjects which is in force in the colony under your Government, showing the objects for which such legislation was adopted, and the measure of success which has attended it. I have, &c, H. T. HOLLAND. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

Enclosure. Sir, — Foreign Office, 21st December, 1887. I am directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to transmit to you a copy of a note from the Chinese Minister at this Court, calling attention to the position of Chinese subjects in Her Majesty's colonies, and requesting that an inquiry may be instituted into the laws enacted against his countrymen by some of the colonial Legislatures of Australia and the Dominion of Canada. I am to request that, in laying this letter before Secretary Sir H. Holland, you will move him to cause Lord Salisbury to be informed what reply should be returned to the Chinese Minister. I am, &c, The Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office. P. W. Currie.

Sub-enclosure. My Lord, — Chinese Legation, 12th December, 1887. The Chinese Commissioners who recently visited the Australian Colonies for the purpose of inquiring into the condition of the Chinese subjects residing in these parts of Her Britannic Majesty's dominions, report that in each of the colonies they visited a poll-tax of £10 is imposed on Chinese subjects, from which the subjects of other Powers are exempt. lam also informed that at the present moment a Bill, which passed the House of Assembly of Tasmania in September last, is under the consideration of the Legislative Council of that colony, having for its object the imposition of a similar tax on all Chinese subjects who may hereafter visit the island for the purpose of trade. In my despatch of the 13th July, 1886, I had occasion to draw the attention of your Lordship's predecessor to the invidious position in which Chinese subjects were placed by the operation of a peculiarly offensive Act which had been passed by the Government of British Columbia. Having in that despatch very fully discussed the question of the injustice of making Chinese subjects, who, on the faith of treaties and international usage, had entered the colony, the objects of discriminative legislation, I need not here revert to the matter, more especially as the Chinese Government is convinced that where colonial Legislatures have enacted regulations inimical to Chinese, and which I—A. 1.