Description
Rare parliamentary report of the proceeds of the Chinese Passenger and Protection Rates legislated on 12 June 1855.
After repeated requests from miners on the Victorian fields the Victorian government legislated duties of one shilling a ton on every vessel (half-yearly) and five shillings for each passenger other than Chinese for whom £ 10.00 had to be paid. Additional law stated that only one Chinese passenger could be landed for each ten tons of the vessel’s tonnage. For a short period this stemmed the wave of Chinese immigration until it was realised that if the Chinese were landed in South Australia and travelled by land to the goldfields they would avoid the tax.
