[Editor: This article, regarding the Immigration Restriction Bill, was published in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, NSW), 6 December 1901. When it became law, the Immigration Restriction Act formed the foundation of the White Australia Policy.]
The Federal Parliament.
The Senate.
Kanaka Bill passed.
Melbourne, Thursday.
The President of the Senate (Sir Richard Baker) took the Chair at half-two o’clock to-day.
Senate O’CONNOR, the vice-president of the Executive Council, in reply to a question, said that the Government did not feel called on to test the possibility of producing sugar in the north of Queensland solely by white labour.
The bill relating to post and telegraph rates was introduced, and read a first time.
Senator NEILD (N.S.W.) moved to recommit the Pacific Island Labourers Bill, which was passed yesterday with the view of modifying Clause 8, which as amended gives power to deport kanakas anywhere.
Senators Dobson (Tas.), Symon (S.A.), and Gould (N.S.W.) complained that an important amendment had been made at a very late hour after many members had left the House.
Senator DRAKE, the Postmaster General, opposed the motion for recommittal, which was negatived by 13 votes to 12.
The motion was negatived and report adopted.
The Immigration Restriction Bill further considered in committee.
On Clause 4 of sub-clause A, imposing a test of ability to write out 50 words of an European language.
Senator MACFARLANE (Tas.) moved an amendment, which provided that the language should be known to the immigrant.
This was negatived.
Senator M’GREGOR (S.A.) submitted an amendment in favour of direct exclusion.
Senator SYMON (S.A.) who gave the proposal strong support, said if the language of the bill was to please Mr. Chamberlain he would rather displease 50 Chamberlains than place dishonest legislation on the Statute Book.
Senator O’CONNOR opposed the amendment, denying that the bill involved any duplicity, and dwelling on the fact that the Imperial Government could not assent to a measure directly insulting to a friendly power.
Progress was reported, and the House adjourned at 11 o’clock.
Source:
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (Newcastle, NSW), 6 December 1901, p. 5
Editor’s notes:
bill = a proposed law, or an amendment to an existing law
See: “Bill (law)”, Wikipedia
Chamberlain = Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), British politician; he was born in Camberwell (Surrey, England) in 1836, served as the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for the Colonies (1895-1903), and died in Birmingham (England) in 1914
See: “Joseph Chamberlain”, Wikipedia
House = (in the context of the Australian Senate and Senators) the Senate (the federal Upper House); can also refer to Parliament House, or to the House of Representatives (the federal Lower House)
Imperial Government = in the context of early Australia, the British government
kanaka = a Pacific Islander employed as an indentured labourer in various countries, such as Australia (especially in Queensland), British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu; in Australia the kanakas were mostly used on the sugar plantations and cotton plantations in Queensland (the word “kanaka” derives from the Hawaiian word for “person” or “man”)
See: 1) “Australian South Sea Islanders”, State Library of Queensland
2) “Kanaka”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
3) “AGY-2566 | Royal Commission of Enquiry into certain cases of Alleged Kidnapping of Natives of the Loyalty Islands, in the years 1865 – 1868; and the state and probable results of Polynesian Immigration”, Research Data Australia
4) Keith Windschuttle, “Why Australia had no slavery: The islanders”, Quadrant, 19 June 2020
5) “Digitised @ SLQ – Islanders speak out about deportation in 1906”, State Library of Queensland, 15 August 2013
6) “Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)”, Wikipedia
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