REGISTERING CHINESE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2196, 21 May 1908, Page 1

REGISTERING CHINESE.

TAKING. THE FINGER PRINTS. Is the scene a public one?. It may not be intended for such, but in effect it is. It can be seen weekly, when the Sydney boat arrives. Lined up .along the wall of a Jarge room in the Customs Department, of which the door is always open, and clustered about the outer corridors, call be seen a score or more of solemn Chinamen, their “pigtails” neatly braided over their liatless heads,, and almond eyes expressing various emotions. Callow young Celestials, who have torn themselves away from anxious parents, grizzled veterans who have left grand-cliildren in the ricefields, and every age between, may usually be seen among the Orientals. They are strangers in a strange land, that does not specially want them, immigrants, who have paid their polltax, and are awaiting the receipt—with them their kith and kin of Wellington, who speak the tongue of the “barbarians.”

The finger prints of those wlio have arrived for tho first time are taken in a most elaborate way by a young cadetto, wlio also takes the strangers’ names and addresses, and generally puts them through their facings with a dignity of nr’oner and decisiveness of action which is most admirable. “Ko Fling,,” the young lady calls, after consultation of a list, and Ko Fung stops forward, more or less promptly, shakes his head to indicate that he does not understand English, and puts himself in the hands of the interpreter. Name, origin, occupation, .and destination are with somo trouble elicited, and the man lias then to make bis mark. On the form which notifies that he has paid his poll tax there arc spaces left for the finger prints of both his hands. Further prints ire taken on a duplicate form, so that both parties may have evidence of the payment. Usually the newcomer regards this performance as fearfully mysterious. His fingers are smudged with ink, and he essays to place the tips very gingerly upon the white sheet. Placing a towel' above his hand, the young lady presses down quickly but firmly the ends of four lingers—first the right hand, then the left. The name of-the next Chinaman is called.

Twelve Chinese arrived by the Sydney boat recently (says the “Dominion”), but ten of them had been in New Zealand before, and when this is the case the finger prints ire taken less elaborately on a sheet of foolscap for comparison with the Department’s previous records. Several members of tho 'Wellington Chinese colony were present to hearten up the strangers for the mysterious but brief ordeal.