HOW THE CHINESE ENTER AUSTRALIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3019, 16 October 1908, Page 4

HOW THE CHINESE ENTER AUSTRALIA.

From time to time it has been reported that vessels from China have made secret visits to the Northern ports of Australia, landing Chinese passengers (who thus avoid payment of the £IOO poll tax imposed), as well as quantities of opium, which subsequently finds its way to the centres of population. , Evidence of the presence of many more Chinese than are accounted for by the Customs Department is afforded by recent returns from the Queensland Department, which showed the Chinese entries by the ports to be considerably less than the present alien population in that State. A circumstantial account of the existence of a Chinese colony somewhere on the shores of York Peninsula was related by a traveller some two or three years ago, but though the Queensland Government despatched a vessel to cruise round the coast for the purpose of locating the place, nothing was found. Certain it is that a great many more Chinese somehow enter Australia than are accounted for by the Customs authorities. It is possible that numbers secretly find their way thither by the Malay proas which make periodic visits to the northern coasts of the Commonwealth.