A CHINAMAN’S WIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1921, Page 6

A CHINAMAN’S WIVES.

NICE POINT FOR THE SYDNEY POLICE. The Sydney Water Police had a quaint problem before them last week, when a vessel arrived f’nm Fiji and a Chinese Britisher step 1 .. d ashore, followed by twz» demure Chinese wives. He was a rich Chinese merchant, and he was proud of his two dainty little wives, each of whom was accompanied by a family of chubby children. ” The water police were in a quandary; there were no regulations governing the entry of two wives into the country. They were good British regulations, recognising only monogamy. The position became* more complicated when it was found that the Chinaman was a naturalised British subject. Therefore his wives and children were naturalised British subjects too. The formalities to make them so had been gone through in Suva. But the Australian law only recognised one wife. ■Which of the two little Chinese women wfea she to be?

It appeared that the first wife had been married years ago, in China, where a system of polygamy based on economic condition is allowed—that is to say, a man may marry as many women as he can support. Then the Chinaman, coming to Fiji and prospering, had taken a second wife—this one according to the British law, which did not recognise the first wife. The name of the first wife was on the Chinaman's passport, however, while the second (and, in the eyes of British law, the legal) wife had merely an official permit to leave Fiji. There were some fierce arguments between the indignant Chinaman and the harassed police. The police said they had no regulation recognising two wives. The Chinaman, as a naturalised Britisher, insisted that they both have admittance to the country as the wives of a Britisher.

Finally it was decided to pass in the wife claimed in the passport—the lady who was married in China. The lady married in Fiji, who was not in the passport but the legal wife in British eyes, was labelled an alien, and passed jn as such. It will therefore be necessary, under the Aliens Registration Regulations, for this la<|y to report herself at intervals to the police.