Dialogue: Clark's apology to Chinese only a first step in amends

The prime ministerial expression of regret for the wrongs suffered by the Chinese community early last century highlights a sorry chapter in New Zealand history, writes MANYING IP.

The Year of the Horse should be an auspicious year for New Zealand's Chinese community.

Yesterday, on Chinese New Year's Day, the Prime Minister made a surprise apology for the historic wrong inflicted on the Chinese by a poll tax and other racially discriminatory restrictions.

When Helen Clark gave that formal acknowledgment of past injustices, she put New Zealand ahead of the United States, Canada and Australia, which share similar anti-Chinese historic wrongs.

In doing so she paved the way for the nation to come to terms with an integral part of its history, thereby getting it more ready to move forward with one shackle shaken free.

It was not widely known that New Zealand imposed a poll tax on the Chinese. While Australia achieved notoriety among Asian states for its White Australia policy, New Zealand continued to be regarded as a generally friendly and racially tolerant nation.

In reality, New Zealand's poll tax was in place in 1881 and remained in force until 1944, a period considerably longer than that imposed by Australia and Canada.

I remember my own shock and dismay on discovering that New Zealand had a hidden chapter of anti-Chinese prejudices enshrined by formal legislation, the foremost of which was the series of poll-tax laws.

In the early 1980s I was asked to write a short article on Chinese settlement in New Zealand. I imagined it to be a relatively easy task. But to my frustration none of the standard histories of New Zealand had more than a sentence or two on the Chinese.

Undeterred, I went to the Auckland archives. A helpful archivist brought out two old boxes marked Labour Department, Chinese. The boxes held re-entry permits and big photographs of Chinese men, all stamped with the red wax seals of New Zealand Customs. Every permit was thumb-printed, and besides the height, scars and visible characteristics of the holder, bore the name of a guarantor.

The Chinese were clearly under strict surveillance. Each document gave permission for the holder to re-enter New Zealand only if he had a poll-tax certificate.

When I looked through those turn-of-the-century documents, it was like looking into some dark secrets. I had an overwhelming sense of unease, confusion and non-comprehension. How could New Zealand, which was apparently so tolerant and egalitarian, be so anti-Chinese?

Next, I went to the National Archive in Wellington. When I opened the boxes and stared at all those poll-tax stub books, my tears flowed. I cried not only for the injustices and humiliation suffered by my fellow Chinese, but for this shameful chapter of the history of my adopted country.

New Zealand's treatment of the Chinese was out of character with its handling of other migrants. The Chinese were the only people made to pay a poll tax for entry into New Zealand. Under the 1881 Chinese Immigrants Act, every Chinese was required to pay a poll tax of £10. A 1896 amendment raised the amount to £100, astronomical when the average weekly wage was counted more in shillings than pounds.

The poll tax was intended to be a blunt instrument to restrict the entry of Chinese, who were viewed as alien, heathen and undesirable. They were labelled the Yellow Peril which threatened the racial purity of a new country which aspired to be a better Britain of the South Seas.

The Chinese, on the other hand, entertained little hope of settling in New Zealand. Long used to being loathed and unwelcome in white settler countries, they aspired only to become successful sojourners. Before the 1900s it was the goldfields that lured them. After that it was the prospect of making money in market gardening, running laundries and fruit shops.

Their humble aspiration was to supply menial labour in niche sectors not serviced by white settlers. The target amount of lifetime saving of each Chinese person was precisely the amount of the poll tax - £100.

From 1881 to 1934, the Chinese poll tax yielded about £308,080. All Chinese - men, women and children - had to pay it to enter. The exorbitant tax divided families for generations.

Women were left behind in the home villages because it was deemed unsound to spend £100 to bring out a wife. Boys were usually sent for by their fathers or uncles when they reached their teens.

The poll tax ensured that the Chinese community was one of bachelors, unable to grow and incapable of sinking roots for decades. Only when the Japanese invaded China in the late 1930s were the families of New Zealand Chinese men temporarily allowed to join their husbands and fathers on humanitarian grounds.

When Walter Nash formally abolished the poll tax in 1944, he expressed pleasure in removing the blot on our legislation. By then the poll tax had not been active for 10 years.

Noting China's war of resistance against Japan, he concluded that we were merely saying that the Chinese were as good as any other race and that we would not in future countenance any discrimination against them.

The issue of the poll tax lay dormant for many decades. But it was not forgotten. Indeed, the xenophobia and anti-immigrant outcry of the 1990s awakened a sense of deja vu among Chinese New Zealanders. Many felt that an official admission of the wrongs wrought by the poll tax could be a first step in establishing the rightful position of the Chinese in New Zealand.

Monetary reparation to individuals was never on the agenda. But it was hoped the Government would admit responsibility in principle, and there could be wider recognition of the perils of racism and the suffering inflicted on generations of Chinese families.

The present Government has been astute enough to see that a formal acknowledgment of past wrongs might capture the hearts and votes of the Chinese community.

The migrants of the new Asian wave of the early 1990s were widely regarded as potential National Party supporters largely because of their middle-class backgrounds, comparative affluence and business interest.

Probably the Labour Party has never quite forgotten that local-born Chinese New Zealanders were once their staunch supporters. In 1947, another Labour Government allowed the Chinese refugee wives and children to become permanent residents. Longstanding Chinese families have usually reciprocated with bloc votes.

The apology about the poll tax is not without controversy. Some Chinese view it as an election-year ploy, while others lament the lack of wider consultation, especially with the direct descendants of the poll-tax victims. These criticisms are legitimate.

But an official apology is a step forward and, as such, should be supported by all. The apology would, however, be more meaningful if it were followed by an education programme to ensure that such a sorry chapter is never forgotten.

Governments come and go, but the people who make up a nation remain. Initiatives which help to ensure better understanding towards ethnic minorities and heighten public awareness of past mistakes should be encouraged.

In this spirit we should applaud the prime ministerial apology.

* Manying Ip is an associate professor in the University of Auckland's school of Asian studies.