NEW ZEALANDER SENT TO GAOL

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1931, Page 8

NEW ZEALANDER SENT TO GAOL

COMMONWEALTH’S FAMOUS DICTA! lON ThS!. SYDNEY, July 18. A young, able-bodied New r well-dressed and apparently w. 1 educated went straight tq the Lou,, bay Penitentiary' when he renduu Sydney by the Ulimaiia this week, 11 was a stowaway on the vessel, and the authorities apparently realised that i. he were treated in the same way as most stowaways and prosecuted In. would eventually become a charge o the State, as lie is penniless and hat no prospects of securing a posith.n For that reason he was treated as : prohibited immigrant, and lie had t 1 submit to the famous dictation tics! which no one 1 lias yet passed. Noimally, perhaps, lie would have been permitted to remain on the Ulimaroa but unfortunately for him the vessel on tliis trip lmd to be docked in Sydney, so lie was taken to prison, wilt re lie remained until the vessel “ailed again. The failure* of this young man to pass the dictation test, even though it was given in English, directs attention to tin 1 wide powers of the Commonwealth in this respect under the Immigration Act. There are clauses in the Act which specify undesirables who may b banned because of disease, criminal re cord, or likelihood <;i becoming a charge on the State ; hut the dictat'd! test is a drag-net clause which makeit possible to prevent any immigrant from coining into the country. Eaihin to write at dictation AO words in any European langugage i.s sufficient; a.-, the language chosen is invariahily one with which the immigrant is unfamiliar. The test may even lie set in Gaelic. Hut it is just as difficult for anyone familiar with the English language to pass an English test as any other, for the of) words are read before tlie immigrant i.s permitted to write, and 100 per cent, efficiency is demanded. Offices of the Customs Departm nt who administer the Act, say that no one lias ever passed the test, and no one is ever likely to. IT a man passed he would have to he permitted to enter without a second test, so the officers take no risk of a pass, and if in don't set the test in Spanish or Italian or Gaelic. Under the Act a person in good health and holding a valid pas - port mav he banned. A test hi Dn +-’ was "iven the other day to a part” of uvpsies, and although they lmd amide means, tbev returned by th" K'itvifi steamer. A classic example of Oriental piin"’Tig came to light not Inner ;,eo. The authorities soindit tp Chinese' nlrendv resident 'U the Commonwealth. The officer. seeirm th:,' the rhinosp was not wr'timr a n-o'-d of the test, did not continue for the nrescrihod “0 words. Oil tile tochnieol>'t,v +he Chinese won. and be Is ‘•till in the Commomvenlfh. Tt wee tlvs nn e,m-» made tlie an-Hior’ties donble flint *l’p diefntion fjhnillfl "I"'HV be e-n, n iefed before the transcript)o" could Begin.