Immigration
A decade after the beginning of the 'Gold Rush', there were 12,988 Chinese people in NSW.
That year, 1861, saw the first restrictions imposed on Chinese immigration. A tax of £10 was imposed on each person. No more than one person was permitted for every 10 tons of shipping.
The population declined, restrictions were repealed, and the population rose again. In 1881, there were 10,205 Chinese people in the colony. That year the Influx of Chinese Restriction Act was passed which reintroduced the £10 tax and limited entry to one person for every 100 tons of shipping. Those Chinese people already resident in the colony could apply for Certificates of Exemption or Domicile which would allow them to leave and return. This required proof of residency and generally some form of vouch-safe from a non-Chinese colonist.
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Despite these impediments, the Chinese population rose by around 3,000 over the following decade, the period when the Chinese began operating gardens and shops in North Sydney. There were at least 70 living there by 1891. In 1888 the Chinese Restriction and Regulation Act increased the poll tax for each arrival to £100 with one person permitted to land for every 300 tons of shipping. It also ended the possibility of Chinese people becoming naturalised citizens of NSW. There had been 899 naturalisations by then. The Act itself was aimed at the 'protection of the Colony of New South Wales from the disturbances and national dangers which may arise from the influx of Chinese under restrictions hitherto existing…' Henry Parkes' stated intention was 'to terminate the landing of Chinese on these shores forever…' (Sydney Morning Herald 24/5/1888) ( Henry Parkes St Leonards speech)
The Chinese population of the colony stabilised around 10,000 through the next decade. In 1898, NSW adopted the Immigration Restriction Act which applied the so-called 'Natal Test', allowing rejection of immigrants on the basis of a dictation test. The test could be given in any language and was thereby a surreptitious method of discrimination.
The dictation test was a response to British concerns that 'race-based' colonial restrictions contravened the 1860 Treaty of Peking signed between China and Britain giving unrestricted access for Chinese citizens to the territories of the British Empire. Those various restrictions also discriminated against non-white subjects of the British empire. Indeed, all the restrictive legislation passed from the 1860s to the 1880s ran counter to a general 'open door' approach to international travel which ran parallel to the belief in free trade.
From 1901, immigration law passed to the Commonwealth of Australia and the White Australia Policy was the near universally approved approach to nation building. The discriminatory dictation test was used to enforce it and Chinese people already dwelling in Australia had then to apply for an exemption from the test. It remained in place until 1958. Race-based discrimination was finally dropped from immigration policy in 1973.
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The establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia coincided with the introduction of finger-print identification to Britain – centuries after the uniqueness of such prints were recognised in China and used as signatures. Ironically, perhaps, finger and palm prints, along with small photographic portraits, became part of the means of monitoring Chinese people who wished travel to and from Australia. Finger printing remained a method of the surveillance of non-whites in Australia until after World War Two. The practice was resented by many in the Chinese community.
In another historical irony, these documents provide glimpses into the appearance and movements of marginalised individuals who would otherwise have remained faceless names or anonymous altogether.
Without these documents we would not know of Chong Chew whose name does not appear in either Council's ledgers or the Sands Directory. Yet Chew's 1904 Certificate of Domicile tells us he was a gardener who worked fields near Willoughby Falls in Cammeray. Chew had arrived in Sydney in 1890, after the draconian restrictions of 1888. Thirty-six years old in 1904 he was probably 22 years old when he migrated to the colony in 1890. Chew was born in Canton like many of his countrymen. He was unusually tall at just under 6 feet 'in boots'. His Certificate recorded small-pox scars and another large scar on the left side of his neck. Was this a result of a work accident or violence? Chew's photograph (above) shows a man with the shaved head and long queue – 'pigtail' – often worn by Chinese men in the Qing dynasty. This hairstyle was instantly recognisable and often the subject of derision in the 'white' community. And yet Chew chose to maintain this appearance after 14 years in NSW, suggesting a strong sense of identity. His untailored suit jacket, probably bought second hand, was typical attire for market gardeners (National Archives of Australia).
