Legislative Council 22 November 1879-
On the "Chinese Emigration Ordinance Amendment Bill," His Excellency the Governor said :— Now, there was another proposed emigration about which I refused to issue my license, and that was the emigration of skilled artisans to Sydney and other parts of Australia, which Messrs. STEVENS & Co. brought before me.
Some members of my Executive Council appeared to think favourably of this scheme, and we had a good deal of discussion on the subject, but I adhered to the opinion which, on looking at the papers, I had originally formed,-that I should not relax in any way the rules of the Colony with respect to contract emigration with the object of facilitating the traffic which Messrs. STEVENS & Co. had in view. The idea of sending to Sydney or other parts of Australia a number of skilled Chinese artisans from Hongkong, would, it was pointed out to me, benefit considerably those Chinese who should be so taken, but I had to look to other considerations. I had to consider how far it was desirable for the Governor of this Colony to do anything in the way of relaxing the strict letter of the law so as to facilitate the emigration into Australia of Chinese workmen or labourers, at the very time when it seemed to me that the Governments of Australia were more or less embarrassed by this very question. Accordingly I refused to issue my license, and it happened that six or eight months after some trouble did occur at Sydney with the very steam-ship Company in question, owing to the fact that though I did not give my license in the form they had sought, yet some Chinese were conveyed in another way not in violation of our Ordinances, and the fact of these people arriving in Sydney led to disturbance and caused the local Government no small trouble.
There was another form of emigration to Sydney, Queensland, and other parts of Australia, against which I set my face in this Colony the moment I saw its possibility, or knew that it had ever taken place. That comes under the category more indeed of another subject recently discussed at this Council,--the deportation of criminals, than under that of emigration properly so called, and it is referred to by Mr. DEANE in his evidence before the Committee on Police and Crime. Mr. DEANE tells the Committee that some of the deportees or criminals who received conditional pardons were sent to Australia. The practice was: in the event of an emigrant ship being about to sail, these Chinese criminals were asked where they would like to go to, because neither the conditional pardon nor the deportation warrant of the Governor recited the place to which the criminal was to be deported; it simply stated in the one case the man was willing to leave the Colony and not to return for life, and in the other case he was ordered to leave and not return for five years, as the case might be. However,
in these cases it turned out that if a prisoner expressed a wish to go to Sydney, Brisbane, or any other port of Australia, the practice, Mr. DEANE said, was for the Police to see that man on board the emigrant steamer or ship, and, having seen him safely on board, to make sure, as far as they could, that he left the Colony. I think one witness-not Mr. DEANE, but one of the Inspectors---told the Committee he had seen thirty or forty, at all events a considerable number of the deported criminals, on board one ship.
The Chief Justice.-What date was this?
His Excellency. This used to go on regularly up to two and a half years ago, when I put a stop to the practice. I recently called for a report from Mr. DEANE upon this subject, and he says-(His Excellency read the report of the Captain Superintendent of Police, to the effect that if a deportee desired to leave for any place to which a steamer ran, he was seen on board by a Constable, who remained until his departure; if he desired to go to any native village to which a passage boat plied, the same course was pursued; if he wished to go to Kowloon City, he was escorted to the boundary and there released). The Committee of which my honourable friend (Mr. RYRIE) was a member, not only took the evidence of Mr. DEANE and one of the Inspectors, but in their report they touched upon the subject, and, if I remember rightly, disapproved of the encouragement of the Emigration of Chinese criminals to Australia. However, I have not allowed that, and not one deportee has gone to Australia since my arrival in this Colony.
Page 10
Appendix
B.
List of Deportees &c.
800. 10.00-
CRAFT.
No. 33.
Sir J. P. Hennessy Keny
R
4672
Hong Kong
MINUTE.
Mr Lucas. 19 March
Mr De Robeck 21 March
Mr Wingfield.
Mr Bramston. 21
Mr Meade.
Mr Herbert.
Mr Grant Duff.
Lord Kimberley. 22
was brought to notice by the Govt of the Australian Colonies
Sudden
324
23 March 1881
I have the honour to call your attention to my despatch No. 51 of the 7th Sept. last on the subject of the alleged deportation of Chinese convicts from Hong Kong to the Australian colonies.
The subject is one of great importance and I shall be glad to receive your reply to my despatch at an early date