[Editor: This article, reporting on a lecture about the White Australia Policy, was published in the Goulburn Evening Post (Goulburn, NSW), 3 September 1940.]
White Australia policy
Influence in our history
It was in 1892 that E. G. Wakefield proposed the indenture of Chinese, Indians and South Sea Islanders for Australia, said Mr. F. B. Fitzpatrick in the course of an address on the White Australia policy given before the Rotary Club.
Wakefield was also responsible for another proposal which enabled financing of British labourers who desired to emigrate to Australia and consequent upon this emigration started on a serious scale in 1830. Until 1850, practically none other than British stock came to Australia. Transportation of convicts had ceased in 1840 and planted in the South Seas was this island as British in its population, its ideals and aspirations as Britain itself. So much was this the case that the Immigration Committee in 1837, when considering a proposal for Indian coolie immigration, reported: “Whatever defects may be chargeable upon the state of society here, it is at present so un-mixed in its composition, as to supply materials for the fabrication of a social and political state corresponding to that of the country from which it derives its origin.”
In 1837
As early as 1837 they had evidence of an authoritative desire and intention to preserve and maintain the truly British character of the Colony.
This attitude was endorsed by the Home Government which viewed the indenture system of Indian coolie labour as dangerously close to slave traffic, and the British Government about that time had spent £20,000,000 to free the Empire from the taint of slavery.
Sir Richard Burke, the Governor of N.S.W., and his successors, Sir George Gipps and Sir Charles Fitzroy, strongly supported this view.
Then came gold
Then came the discovery of gold. The rush left industries short of labour and thousands of settlers left their homes to join in the mad stampede for gold. While in the throes of the Gold Fever thousands of Chinese found their way into the country and to various mining centres.
So great was the influx that it was found necessary to check it. And in this movement which was first restrictive but ultimately prohibitive they saw the birth of the white Australia policy movement.
There were four main stages in the development of the policy.
First were the isolated and temporary measures taken by some colonies, independently of each other, at the time of the gold rush. Next came attempted concerted action in the early eighties by several colonies. The third stage was the adoption of fairly restrictive measures by the Colonies in 1888 and finally the adoption of the white Australia policy by the Commonwealth in 1901.
First Chinese
The Chinese who came here originally were mostly of the coolie type. Very many of them were financed by speculators whose security was the services and even persons of the immigrants’ relatives. Such Chinese were under the supervision of head men, representing Chinese speculators. They worked at a fixed wage, the profits going to the speculators in China. Sir Henry Parkes commenting on the system said: “it seems to be something very closely approaching a traffic in slaves.” The Chinese were of no benefit to the Colony. During the year ending June 30, 1857, 116,903 ounces of gold worth half a million was exported to China from Melbourne.
The European and colonial miners resented the presence of the Chinese, to their habits and unhygienic conditions of life as well to the fact that practically all the gold went to China.
The first rumble was heard in the Bendigo district when, at a public meeting at Sandhurst, at the end of June, 1854, it was proposed that “a general and unanimous rising should take place in the various gullies at Bendigo on July 4 next, for the purpose of driving the Chinese population off the Bendigo gold fields.”
Prompt action by the Gold Commissioner prevented trouble. In 1854, about 8000 Chinese arrived on the gold-fields and another 7000 came in the next six months. Then came the Restriction Act of 1855 by which the number of Chinese travelling on a ship was limited to one for every ten tons of registered tonnage. A capitation fee of £10 was also imposed. This was hopelessly outwitted by the Chinese who simply landed in neighbouring colonies and made their way overland.
Lambing Flats
The miners then went in for direct action. At Buckland in the Ovens River district on July 4, 1857, they attacked and drove the Chinese from the field using gross violence. More legislation followed but it still did not meet the situation. The miners protested to Parliament but as little or no heed was paid a meeting followed at Lambing Flats (now Young) “to consider whether this is a European digging or a Mongol territory.” The miners marched to the Chinese camp, committed similar excesses to those of the Buckland Field.
Further riots occurred on June 30 accompanied by the usual burnings, pillagings and other excesses. Three arrests were made and the miners demanded the release of the men arrested. In the ensuing conflict one miner was killed and several were injured while two police were injured.
Riots followed on other fields and military intervention became necessary.
In 1861 the N.S.W. Government passed the Chinese Restriction Act bringing the State into line with Victoria and South Australia. This stemmed the tide of Chinese immigration.
Next stage
The next stage was a constitutional conflict between several Australian Colonial Governments and the Home Government. Gold in Queensland led to trouble with Chinese there.
In the days of Federation a White Australia was one of the foremost planks of all parties in the first Federal Parliament which in its first year passed the Immigration Restriction Bill. This act prohibited the entry into Australia of any person who when asked to do so failed to write out at dictation and sign in the presence of an officer a passage of 50 words in a European language.
It would not be too much to say that this desire underlying the policies of all colonies before 1900 was a very powerful contributing factor to bringing about that federation of the colonies into the Commonwealth.
Source:
Goulburn Evening Post (Goulburn, NSW), 3 September 1940, p. 5
Editor’s notes:
act = an Act of parliament, a law (in its written form, a law is called a “statute”)
See: 1) “Act of parliament”, Wikipedia
Bill = a proposed law, or an amendment to an existing law
See: “Bill (law)”, Wikipedia
capitation fee = a fee charged or levied per capita (i.e. a fee charged per head; a fee charged for each person), in the context of a fee which is charged to a group of people, or charged to all (or most) inhabitants of a particular area, state, or country (derived from “capita”, the plural of “caput”, meaning “head”)
check = to block, halt, or stop something; to control or slow down the development, increase, or progress of something
coolie = a low-cost Asian worker, unskilled labourer, or indentured labourer, especially one of Chinese or Indian ethnicity (can be spelt with or without a capital letter: Coolie, coolie, although usually the latter; plural: Coolies, coolies); of or relating to coolie labour
E. G. Wakefield = Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796-1862), an author, social theorist, and Member of the New Zealand parliament; especially well-known for his theories regarding colonial settlement; he was born in London (England) in 1796, and died in Wellington (New Zealand) in 1862
See: 1) Graeme L. Pretty, “Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796–1862)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Edward Gibbon Wakefield”, Wikipedia
Empire = in the context of early Australia, the British Empire
See: “British Empire”, Wikipedia
Gold Fever = a feverish obsession on the part of those who go looking for gold (especially in the context of a gold rush, when a lot of people go searching for gold); the excitement and greed experienced by people who go looking for gold (especially to the extent of being obsessive about the search for gold); an excessively greedy craving for profit and wealth
Home Government = in an historical Australian context, the British government
Sandhurst = the former name of Bendigo (Vic.)
[Editor: Changed “Sir Charles Fitzroy” to “Sir Charles Fitzroy,” (added a comma).]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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