A GROSS INDIGNITY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 309, 26 June 1912, Page 5

A GROSS INDIGNITY

SOWING SEEDS OF HATRED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Sydney, June 25. The Herald, under the heading "Gross Indignity," publishes the following: "Because she happened to have some colored blood in her veins, being a halfcaste Samoan, the Customs authorities have subjected the daughter of a Briton, the wife of a Briton, who came from New Zealand to Sydney for a holiday, to considerable annoyance and inconvenience, only granting her permission to land on condition that she leaves by the end of the month. The lady is Mrs. Dowell, wife of an official of the Bank of J New Zealand, who lives at Suva. She arrived with her husband on the steamer Wimmera, intending to make a tour of the East. On the ground that she was a prohibited immigrant, the lady, who is a daughter of the late Mr. Meredith, was ordered to remain on the steamer pending instructions. Meanwhile Mr. Dowell visited the Customs office, and after a great deal of cross-questioning obtained a certificate to exempt her on the strength of an assurance that his wife would leave Australia before the end of the month. Mr. Dowell complains of gross indignity." The Herald, in a leader, commenting on the Teport, says: "It seems as if the Federal Government was determined to give the Commonwealth the worst possible name by the enforcement of the White Australia policy. The way in which this lady has been treated makes one wonder what sort of Nemesis will overtake us in future, when Australia will have to reap the crop of hatred sown from just such seed as this."