When Governor Sir George Grey visited Lawrence in March 1867 his coach was accompanied into town by a procession: town councillors on horseback, 100 schoolchildren marching with banners, Odd Fellows Lodge members in regalia, European miners on foot and, according to the Otago Daily Times, ‘a procession of Chinamen [sic] bearing a large silken flag inscribed with Chinese characters’.

There was, the paper said, ‘a perfect thunder of Chinese crackers, fired by the Mongolians in token of their loyalty, which was followed by the enthusiastic cheers of European inhabitants.’^[1]

Just a few weeks later, in early April, the Lawrence Council voted to expel Chinese residents from living within the town’s boundaries.

For us today, these two events show the contradictory nature of encounters between Chinese and Europeans in Otago during the period up to 1881. On the one hand they got on extremely well, on the other the Chinese were not wanted and thought of as inferior. Both these ideas co-existed at the same time.

Early Chinese understood this complexity and events like the exclusion from Lawrence did not deter them from acting like they had a right to participate. The important thing was to get a balance between positive civic participation, good relationships with European colonisers and an active defence of their personal rights.

Supporting good causes was a common way of both participating and fostering good relations. Just a month after the expulsion from Lawrence, local Chinese presented £70 to the Tuapeka Goldfield Hospital. As the Bruce Herald noted, this should be ‘most favourably considered by those who have spoken so much ill of our celestial friends.’^[2]

Special efforts were also made at Chinese Lunar New Year, when an air of festivity pervaded everywhere in which Chinese lived. In 1872 a correspondent from Lawrence reported:

. . . our little town looked gay and cheerful, it being the Chinese New Year . . . During the day Lawrence was visited by a number of {Chinese] displaying their best attire and making considerable purchases, to the great pleasure and profit of our storekeepers, moreover our publicans come in for a share, for John likes a drop of brandy as well as the barbarian. At night the appearance of the camp looks gay and cheerful — crackers in enormous quantities being fired . . . As to their hospitality to all and sundry who visit them, there can be no manner of doubt they display it in no stinted measure, especially to our ladies, a few of whom visited the camp. ^[13]

Celebrations might run for over a week, but the high point was the feast to which Europeans were invited.^[4] The Lake Wakatip Mail described the 1873 celebrations as follows:

The Chinese New Year was celebrated with great rejoicing at Big Beach, Shotover . . . The feast being thrown open to all comers, many Europeans, from curiosity as well as good will, availed themselves of the opportunity of acquiring some insight into 'ye manners and customs of ye Celestials,' and received a hearty welcome. At half-past 3 o'clock the visitors sat down to dinner, which consisted of fowl, roast pork, Chinese vegetables, custards, wines, spirits, &c; after which some prominent residents of Queenstown returned thanks to the Chinese for the reception received at their hands, and then adjourned for the purpose of witnessing a grand display of crackers, which were fired off in commemoration of the day. Mr Worthington then read the Governor's address (or rather reply) to the Chinese address.^[5]

However, an active defence of personal rights required more than donations to good causes and the open hospitality of Chinese New Year. When the first Chinese miners answered Dunedin’s invitation to work the Otago fields, they insisted on a promise of ‘equal protection under the law’. The miners had already experienced violence in Australia: the brother of the miners’ representative Ho A Mei, had interpreted for the survivors of the 1857 Buckland riot in Victoria. Meanwhile, in New Zealand threats were made before Chinese miners even arrived. John Bennet, a local Tuapeka miner, warned, ‘it will require a regiment of soldiers and one hundred and fifty additional police to protect them [the Chinese] and force them upon us against our will.’^[6]

In the end there were no such large-scale riots. But when violence did occur, Chinese were quick to seek legal recourse. In November 1866 Nevis miners made a midnight attack on Chinese sleeping in their tents. Authorities declared that the Chinese had the law on their side and those miners were soon working Nevis claims.^{[7], [8]}

In 1869 the peace in On Tie’s store in the Lawrence Camp was broken by an Irish miner James Dally and his three mates. Brandishing pick handles they pushed the staff about, behaved boisterously with the merchandise, threw stones and broke windows. To Dally’s surprise On Tie had them arrested. Magistrate William Simpson sentenced them to two weeks in prison, with hard labour.^[9]

Harassment and violence: 1865–1900
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Allies and defenders: those who stood against the targeting of Chinese
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When Simpson left Lawrence in 1872, 700 Chinese presented him with a diamond ring and an address praising his ‘fearless, impartial and just manner’. It also credits him for ‘the peaceable and friendly feeling that exists here between the Chinese and European residents.’^[10]

There is no doubt their appreciation was genuine, but a show of public acclaim was an excellent way of making a point. In the same manner, the community would regularly present visiting dignitaries with an illuminated address praising the British Empire’s ‘fair and independent’ legal system. They did this whether the dignitaries, or the system, deserved it or not. The important thing was to keep reminding the public that the world should be equitable.

The need to do this suggests that their world was not always supportive.  In 1872, Chinese in the Queenstown and Cardrona area sent a petition to the Otago Provincial Council requesting the removal of local Warden and Magistrate, Mr Beetham. In their (translated) words:

You are the men we trust. We are honest, and wish the English and Chinese to be brothers. Our countrymen come from a far distance to this country to try to make a benefit to themselves, and wish the English and Chinese to be on the same footing. They get very vexed with this Warden. In Queenstown the Warden does not give justice to the Chinamen. Every time the cases of the Chinamen are not decided by the Regulations. He looks down on the Chinamen. The English jump the Chinese claims, and some of the Europeans assault the Chinese, besides suing them. The Warden does not give justice to the Chinese but fines them.^[11]

A commission of inquiry was called, but the outcome was not as the petitioners hoped. Their grievances were found to be unsupported, doubt was cast on the signatories and there were concerns about the secretive nature in which the petition was distributed. The Provincial Government wrote to Warden Beetham expressing gratitude, and ‘their perfect satisfaction with his administration as a Warden and Magistrate.’^[12]

Amidst all this, support could also come from unlikely places. In 1873 a group of Chinese were camping near Milton as they awaited a court ruling over their unpaid wages. The local council stepped in, co-ordinated support for the Chinese and found them temporary paid work. They also addressed this message to local parents:

We therefore call attention to the practice which prevails of children and youths subjecting them [the Chinese] to annoyance and insults as they pass along the streets. These foreigners have hitherto conducted themselves in an orderly and peaceable manner, and we would suggest to parents the propriety of their teaching their children to behave in a similar manner towards them.^[13]

While hostility was common in goldfields areas, relationships could also be genuinely warm and convivial.^[14] In February 1872 for example, the Otago Daily Times noted:

[The] antagonism between the Chinese and European miners, which prevails on most of the diggings in the Province, is conspicuous by its absence at Waipori, where the Heathen and the Christian drink and play billiards together in the most friendly manner.^[15]

However, it was not long before gold began to dwindle. With profits down, many miners began to wind up their operations and return to China. At around the same time the Government introduced its first piece of anti-Chinese legislation – driven by a strong lobby of European miners. The 1881 Chinese Immigration Act required every new Chinese migrant to pay a £10 poll tax. It was the start of many other legislative restrictions and an increasingly hostile anti-Chinese environment.

In those challenging times, the Chinese community continued its strategy of good works and community participation. But the days of publicly thanking visiting dignitaries for New Zealand’s 'just legal system' were over. There seemed little to praise when the laws themselves were unjust. Instead, Chinese turned to other methods of exerting influence, such as petitions and lobbying. Increasingly these were led by a new group of successful 'middle-class' leaders.

It was left to the new wave of migrants, the poll-tax payers, to negotiate new ways of engaging with European communities. From the 1890s, this was increasingly done in the big cities, Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland, and with Māori and Europeans in small towns across the North Island.

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