HIGHER BARRIERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 75, 20 June 1927, Page 7

HIGHER BARRIERS

CHINESE IMMIGRATION HISTORY OF RESTRICTIONS “IVf ORE and more attention is ” being given to quality in population/’ said Dr E. P. Neale, in a Workers’ Educational Association lecture on Saturday evening on: Ms the World Becoming Overpopulated ?” Few countries in the world could show a better record of racial purity, but as the rate of natural increase declines the question is asked whether the West cculd continue to hold its own against the menacing overflow of the Eastern races, whose rate of increase is either constant or falling less rapidly than our own. The Chinese first reached the Dominion in the sixties, when the gold rushes were on. Early in the seventies there were 5,000 Chinese in the Dominion, and they had never since exceeded that number. When the danger was noted in 1881 a £lO poll tax was imposed on Chinese immigrants which was raised to £IOO in 1896, when vessels were allowed to bring only one Chinese to every 200 tons burden. Following an increase in Chinese arrivals, the Immigration Restriction Act was passed, requiring Chinese entrants to be able to read a passage of 100 words in English. . There was a necessity evident for constantly increasing the bars to Chinese immigration, on economic grounds.