The earliest Chinese merchants arrived in Aotearoa to supply miners with food, ingredients and utensils. As the Chinese population grew, so did the number of suppliers. The largest supply businesses chartered their own ships and exported New Zealand goods to China. Business owners frequently became Chinese community leaders, and some were accepted as respectable members of colonial society.

In 1865 the first five Chinese miners arrived at Port Chalmers with 40 sacks (1,000 kg) of rice, a bag of dried salted fish and two boxes of Chinese oil.^[1] The goods were the property of Ho A Mei, who had negotiated with the Dunedin authorities to bring the first group of miners from Victoria to Otago. He planned a grand future, imagining himself as the supplier of Chinese stores all over the goldfields. Sadly for him the rush was slow to take off, and with too few arrivals Ho returned to Victoria in 1866.

If he had waited another year he might have seen his investment grow. In 1867 there were 282 miners working around Lawrence alone.^[2] This was quite enough to make Chinese storekeeping profitable and a number of traders set up at the Lawrence camp.^[3]

Setting up a business took an enterprising and experienced person, perhaps with merchant contacts in Melbourne. One of these was Woh Op, who had a single-room weatherboard shop at Gabriels Gully. It was small enough to be moved closer to the Lawrence Camp when his customers shifted claims. The shop was divided into a store-room and a sleeping space partitioned off with stacks of packing-cases and piled goods. His kitchen was at the rear, a lean-to structure with tight-stretched calico walls.^[4]

By 1868 numbers around Lawrence doubled to 557.^[5] There were at least two big general stores, a cooking establishment and other houses.^[6] He Tie and Co was run by Wong On, who was said to speak excellent English, but even better French.^[7] The other large store was the Wah Hop Co run by partners Wah Hop and Mee Wah. Few records survive of their activities, but shipping notices show He Tie & Co received at least 16 consignments between 1867 and 1868, all forwarded by Melbourne merchants.

Lawrence was not the only place where Chinese miners worked. Other big communities included Mount Ida / Naseby (147), Cromwell (175), Blacks / Ophir (100) and Alexandra (100).^[8] Each had their own Chinese stores that were often supplied by businesses in Lawrence.

In addition to the goldfields there were substantial Chinese businesses in the thriving city of Dunedin.^[9] These catered not to Chinese, but to Europeans. Joseph Lo Keong, formerly of Emerald Hill, Victoria, arrived about 1866 and his shop in George St prospered by selling fancy Chinese goods and toys. Low Ket sold similar goods such as fans, ivory ornaments, chess-sets, porcelain vases, toys and tea. Beginning as a hawker selling door to door, he soon opened Low Ket's Bazaar. The advertising was enticing.

As the Chinese population continued to grow, entrepreneurs in Victoria and Otago were calculating the ideal moment to set up base in Dunedin. Entering the market too early risked a lost investment, like Ho A Mei. Too late might mean a missed market share.

The tipping point arrived in 1869. In April, after an 8-month gap, 224 miners made dramatic arrivals. The Lawrence newspaper noted: ‘Several of the wealthier storekeepers at the Chinese Camp intend to sell out and remove to Dunedin, where they purpose erecting large stores. This move is caused by the extensive immigration from China that has just set in.’^[10] One of these storekeepers was Mee Wah who sold his share in the Wah Op store to open a business in Stafford Street.

His store was soon joined by other new businesses, many with strong Australian links. Choie Sew Hoy, originally from Poon Yue county,^[11] arrived in Dunedin from Melbourne in 1869 and set up his eponymous Sew Hoy Company in Stafford St.

Two years later in 1871, Kum Goon Lee & Co (Golden Spring Profits)^[12] set up in Princes Street. That business had branches in Lawrence (Central Otago), Sydney, Wellington (New South Wales), Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Owned by people from Jung Seng county,^[13] just to the east of Canton (Guangzhou), the global business highlights the economic network that linked Chinese diasporic communities across the Pacific.

Slightly later to the party was Melbourne businessman Lowe Kong Meng, who with four other merchants from the Sam Yup area,^[14] also set up their firm Sun War On on Princes Street in 1872.

Ancestral lands: the home counties of Aotearoa's early Chinese
Explore more

Although Chinese spent their money at both European and Chinese shops - and were noted as being good spenders - the Chinese merchants played a special role in catering to their own county folk. County of origin was a central part of people's identity and this was reinforced by language differences. The men from Sam Yup would not have been able to understand the men from Poon Yue and Jung Seng, and vice versa. This probably contributed to a sense of mistrust and fuelled historic grievances.

In this environment, merchants catering to these subgroups were often a link to home. Their premises offered a support network of people speaking the same language, sharing the same culture and often sharing the same family networks. This was important when it came to extending customer credit. The usual question was, ‘What village do you come from?’ The combination of family name and village name was as good as a credit card.

The main business of the Dunedin merchants was to supply upcountry stores with imports, especially food. Newly arrived men also needed equipment, tools and all the clothing for a New Zealand climate. Goods were supplied by carriers’ drays or by sea. In 1873, for example, Choie Sew Hoy supplied a Hokitika storekeeper with 4 half-chests tea, 1 bag of dried tangerine peel [used for flavouring], 1 box sauce, 1 box vermicelli, 1 box beans, 1 box pickles, 1 jar jams [sic], 1 basket ginger and 1 box sardines.^[15]

‍

But there were other important services that the stores offered. Through the close county and family networks, money could be sent back home, and letters written and delivered. You could find lodgings, get advice on legal problems and disputes, and catch up on the newspapers and gossip. You might even get financial assistance to start your own store, open a market garden or launch a mining venture. Above all, there was always a cup of tea ready for customers.

However, the business of trade was not only about importing and supplying Chinese goods. There was also an export aspect. Dairying pioneer Chew Chong was possibly the first to realise that the metal thrown away as scrap could reach a good price in Hong Kong foundries.^[16] By 1870, Low Ket was advertising for ‘old horse-shoes and copper’, while other Dunedin merchants had upcountry storekeepers gathering scrap metal for them.

Choie Sew Hoy went one better by spotting the value of exporting beef bones to workshops producing Chinese carvings and mah jong tiles. He also supplied NZ Railways with peanut oil for lubrication, and exported oats and frozen meat.

John Ah Tong was the first to export wood ear fungus (木耳, muk6 ji5 in Cantonese and hakeke in Māori), sending a shipment to Lowe Kong Meng in 1871. But it was Chew Chong who turned this export into a full scale industry, providing vital cash income to both European and Māori families in the Taranaki in the 1870s-1880s. On five occasions during this period, exports of fungus exceeded the value of butter exports.^[17]

Transport was a major cost and businesses co-operated to keep costs down. The first ship chartered by Chinese New Zealand companies sailed in June 1871. The Sew Hoy and Kum Goon Lee firms chartered the barque Minnie Graham to sail direct to Hong Kong with scrap metal and bones, as well as 113 returning Chinese carrying 4,234 ounces of gold.^[18]

Carrying passengers was lucrative. Between 1871-72 Otago merchants chartered nine ships that brought 2,536 Chinese from Hong Kong to Otago. It was not only the fares that were profitable, but also the significant increase in their customer base.

However, along with profit there was also responsibility. The most significant business people were highly visible in the community and many stepped up to fill leadership roles. When Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, visited Dunedin in May 1869, he was given an address by three Chinese merchants, Me Wah, Yung Yung and Low [sic] Ket.^[19] The address thanked the Queen’s representative for the promise made to Chinese in 1865 that they would be given equal protection under the law. The address was the first of many such 'reminders'.

In the following years, merchants would be at the forefront of defending the Chinese community against injustice. This became more important as anti-Chinese feeling grew. Prominent figures, such as Thomas Ah Quoi in Auckland, John Ah Tong in Wellington and Choie Sew Hoy in Dunedin, publicly defended their countrymen on major issues like the Poll Tax and limiting Chinese immigration.^[20]

Link to poll tax section to come
Explore more

Merchants also banded together on minor matters. When a bank found some sovereign coins had had some gold filed away, a newspaper blamed 'some local Chinamen'.  Four Dunedin firms, representing all the county groups, signed a letter to the editor objecting to the smear.^[21]

‍

On a more upbeat note, merchants also organised grand fireworks displays for Queen Victoria’s birthday and Diamond Jubilee. The money raised was given to charity. They also erected an arch of welcome in Princes Street when the Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York – the future King George V and Queen Mary - made a royal visit in 1901. In other instances Chinese leaders actively engaged with local charities. Dunedin merchants collected funds to aid Irish and Indian causes, as well as shipwreck victims. Soup kitchens, the Jewish Bazaar, and the workers’ library at the Hillside Railway Workshops all benefitted.^[22]

The European community returned the favour in 1878 by joining with Dunedin Chinese to raise funds for the North China famine relief fund.  Albert Leung Chung spoke at a fund-raising concert with Chinese musicians. ‘I wish to express my thanks to our European fellow colonists for the generous way in which they have answered to the call of my unhappy countrymen in this great need.’^[23]

Supporting the Chinese community was, of course, a given. As the community aged a Benevolent Association, offered assistance to old or ailing men, sometimes arranging for them to be returned to China. Merchant Choie Sew Hoy was in frequent contact with the Association. He was also the key figure in the Cheong Shing Tong the charitable association that returned the remains of those who had died in New Zealand, to their families in China.

By the 20th century and with the gold rush over, Dunedin’s merchants faced declining business. Some firms adapted and survived, while others started up elsewhere following the general population drift north. Wherever they were, merchants continued to provide Chinese food and goods to the next generation: supplying the many urban and suburban greengrocers, market gardeners and laundry workers.

‍