216
CARL SMITH
Then, "while I was thus allowing my patience to be taxed and tormented for good news," an offer was made to become interpreter at Ballarat in the goldfield area of Victoria. He accepted.
Not long after, news came that some of the men he had taken to New Zealand had struck it rich. The report caused a rush of Chinese from Australia to New Zealand.
A-mei, however, had severed his connection with the emigrant shipping business when he became interpreter, so he did not realise the profit that might have been his if he had persisted a little longer.
The rush, however, was shortlived, although it lasted enough for over 1,000 Chinese to be added to the population of New Zealand within a year.
An invitation was extended to Ho A-mei to come over and accept a position as interpreter. The offer was declined, because, as A-mei says, “I knew I might be required to travel in the rigid winter of your country, which I was fully aware I could not stand.”
Finding that he had been unable to save much money in Australia, A-mei decided to return to China in 1868.
In 1870 a new movement of Chinese to New Zealand was under way, this time largely from China. Because of his previous experience, Ho A-mei, who was in Hongkong at the time, was consulted regarding the chartering of vessels to carry the emigrants. He resumed his activity as emigrant agent, sending off three shiploads within a few months. This not only benefited him financially, but he felt his earlier efforts had been vindicated.
He says: "Now, I may be proud to remark that the attempt which prompted me to introduce Chinese labour into your colony, and which was at one time considered so futile, has, at last, turned the right side up."
In the letter recounting all this, he signed himself: "Ho A-mee, Pioneer." It was an apt designation.