Author: Chinese in New Zealand.
Title: Interim Report (No.I.) of the Chinese Immigration Committee. [with] Interim Report (No.II.) ... [and] Final Report ... with Minutes of Proceedings.
Description: Wellington 1871. Three parts foolscap, disbound; 27;15 & 8pp. ¶ Despite the evidence of expert witnesses like the Otago Commissioner for Crown Lands, J.T. Thomson (16 years in the Straits Settlements), John Maitland (three years in China), Captain Bishop (sailed out of Hong Kong and Whampoa), and James Hector M.D., who together defined the Chinese as morally debased scrofulous and leprous troublemaking polygamists, the counterbalance of contrary evidence and the apparent sense of the committee resulted in the most sane and humane conclusions I have yet seen in a colonial document on Chinese immigrants. The committee listed 11 points of unproven yellow peril concern and concluded "that there have been no sufficient grounds shown for the exclusion of the Chinese ... or for the imposition of special burdens upon them." This enlightenment dimmed and went out over the next decade: the Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881 brought New Zealand into line with the less benign Australian colonies. Trove and Worldcat and Copac were unable to find any copy of these though of course a search of the NZ National Library brings them up.

Keywords: history Chinese immigration emigration political economy government race China c19th New Zealand yellow peril law Asia