سمجھ
92
the
Observations of His Excellency the Governor in Legislative Council, 22nd November, 1879, deportation of Chinese Criminals to Australia
on
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
A Meeting of the Legislative Council was held android. There were present:---
on Ge
His Excellency the GOVERNOR,
Hon. Sir JOHN SMALE, Chief Justice.
Hon. W. H. MAESH, Colonial Secretary. Hon. J. RUSSELL, Acting Attorney General. Hon. M. S. TORNOCHY, Acting Colonial
Treasurer.
Hon. P. RYRIE.
Hon. W. KESWICK,
THE CHINESE EMIGRATION AMENDMENT ORDINANCE.
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Now, there was another proposed emigra- tion about which I refused to issue my licence, and that was the emigration of skilled artizans to Syd- ney and other parts of Australia, which Messrs. Stevens and Co. put before nie. I find some members of my Executive also appeared to think favourably of this, 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 this Colony with respect to con- triot emigration with the object of facilitating the traffic which Mossrs. Stevens and Co. had in view. The idea of sending to Australia-Sydney or other parts--a number of skilled Chinese arti- zans from Hongkong, would, it was pointed out, benefit considerably those Chinese who should be ao taken; but I had to look to other considera- tions. 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 immigration into Australia of Chinese workmen or labourers, at the very time when it seemed the Governments of Aus- tralia were more or less embarrassed by this very question. Accordingly I refused to issue my licence; and it happened that six or eight months after some trouble did occur at Sydney with the very steamship company in question, owing to the fact that though I did not give my Beence in the form they bad sought, yet Chi- nese were conveyed in another way not in viola tion of our Ordinances, and the fact of these |peoplo arriving in Sydney led to disturbance and cansed 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 that it had ever taken place. That comes under the category more indeed of anobber subject recently discussed at this Council than under that of emigration pro- perly so called, and it is referred to by Mr. Deane in his evidence before the Committee on Polios and Crime. Mr. Deane tells the Com- mittee 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 re- cited the place to which the person was to be. deported, it simply stated in the one oase the man was willing to leave the Colony and not re- turn for life and in the other caso be 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, on any other port of Aus- tralia, 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 Com- mittee he had seen, thirty or forty, at all events | a considerable parber, of the deported criminals on board one ship.
The CHIEF-JUSTICE -What date was this ? His EXCELLENCY-This used to go on roga. ilarly up to two and a half years ago, when I put ! a stop to the practice. I recently called for a report from Me. Deane upon this subject, and he says. His Excellenvy road the report of the Captain Superintendent of Police, to the effect. that if a deportes 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 pur- sued; if he wished to go to Kowloon City he was escorted to the boundary and there released]. The Committee, of which my hon. friend (Mr. Ryrie) was a member, not only took the evidence of Mr. Deaue and one of the inspectors, but in their report they touched upou the subject, and, if I remember rightly, disapproved of the en- conragoment of the emigration of Chinese cri- minals to Australia. However, I have not al- lowed that, and not one deportee has gone to Australia since my arrival in this Colony.
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