Young Hee (Young Sui Hei) was just 14 years old when he arrived in Greymouth in 1883. He was born in Pong Woo (Mussel Lake) village, Poon Yu county near Canton (Guangzhou). But in 1883 his father, Yung Yuk Tin,^[1] was already well established in Greymouth.

Chinese had been on the West Coast from 1867 and had been mining in the Grey district since 1872. Greymouth was their business and social hub, and had several large Chinese stores. One of the biggest was Yung Yuk Tin’s shop ‘Kwong Lee Yuen’.

As the eldest son, Young Hee was the first family member to join his father in New Zealand. He settled in quickly and was enrolled at Greymouth State School. Although his English was limited, he soon rectified this in rather spectacular fashion. Within three months his handwriting was ‘quite equal to that of the average European boys’. Eighteen months later he won the top prizes for general proficiency, arithmetic, grammar, geography and writing.^[2]

The learning was put to good use. He was 16 and still at school when he began writing letters to officials for fellow community members, lodging their mining applications in the courts and organising burials at the local cemetery.^[3] The West Coast Chinese were very active and Chinese storekeepers (and their sons) played a major role in liaising between the community and European authorities.^[4]

No 'ordinary' miners: Chinese on the West Coast of New Zealand
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Recognising Young Hee’s potential, Yung Yuk Tin paid £100 to the Greymouth law firm Jones & Hannan to employ his son as an articled or trainee clerk after he finished school. Young Hee was almost certainly the first Chinese law clerk in New Zealand.^[5] It appears he had the talent for it.

In 1890 the Greymouth Star reported on a meeting of the local debating club in which Young Hee made 'a very well got up, argumentative speech' against the poll tax. The tax was meant to restrict Chinese immigration and charged Chinese migrants £10 to enter New Zealand. This was later raised to £100 in 1896. Chinese were the only ethnic group targeted for a tax.

As the 20-year-old Young Hee pointed out, the tax was 'unjust and iniquitous'. Further:

Chinese . . . should not be taxed any more than any other foreigners coming into the colonies; [and] that the tax was in direct contravention to a treaty made between the Chinese and the British Empire. Britons made it a boast that under their flag everyone should receive justice, irrespective of nation or color, yet it was denied to Chinese.^[6]

Learning the intricacies of New Zealand law was useful for the Young family and the wider Chinese community. Young Hee and his brother, Young Saye, for example, were on the electoral roll even though they were not naturalised themselves.  In 1893 Young Hee wrote to the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand pointing out that they were entitled to be on the roll under the Aliens Act of 1880, as their father was naturalised.^[7]

Quick wits were also useful when he travelled overseas. In 1894 he went to San Francisco to collect some debts for his father’s firm. One of the debtors tried to get Young Hee arrested as a Chinese person who had entered the United States without getting a permit. As resourceful as ever, Young Hee told the Customs Officer that he had an English mother and a Japanese father, and that there was not a drop of Chinese blood in his veins. He was allowed to go free.^{[8], [9]}

The people of Greymouth were proud of their high-achieving resident. For the Chinese he was a court interpreter,^[10] and had been secretary of the local Chinese Society by the time he was 21. He also organised Chinese fireworks displays to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887, and for other local causes. For the Europeans, Young Hee was a leader in the local debating team, a timekeeper for boxing matches, and was also a member of Greymouth’s Jockey Club and Athletic Club.^[11]

In January 1892 he spoke at a banquet for the Governor, the Earl of Ranfurly. Asked to speak on behalf of the ladies of Greymouth, Young Hee started by saying that his acquaintance with European ladies was limited, but that ‘the further I go away from Greymouth the less beautiful do the ladies become.’ He then bravely commented on the unjust poll-tax that the Government imposed on ‘Chinese ladies’.^[12]

However, it wasn’t easy fitting in with the local community. West Coast politicians such as Richard Seddon, Richard Reeves and James Kerr campaigned with an anti-Chinese stance and supported the introduction of the poll tax on Chinese.

One of the principals of the law firm where Young Hee worked, W H Jones, was campaigning for election to parliament. At a public meeting he was asked his views on employing Chinese labour. Jones artfully dodged the question by stating that, ‘he was in favour of employing Young Hee, who as an articled clerk had paid him 100 guineas, and a faithful and intelligent clerk he was. [But] He knew why the question was put.’^[13]

In 1896 James Wilkie (a Wellington journalist) pointed out that while MP James Kerr had been happy to host Young Hee and his wife at his house in 1895, just over a year later he was reported in Hansard as saying that he had ‘a perfect horror of the Chinese, their conduct I detest’.^[14]

At this time, Young Hee had been married for several years. He had gone to China in 1893 and returned with his mother Lau Sze, his newly wedded wife, his wife’s sister, and a young woman described as a 'Chinese waiting maid'.^[15] It is likely that this was Teng Ah Moy, who later became Annie Ah Long.

By the late 1890s Young Hee had taken up the cause that he is most remembered for today: the campaign against opium smoking. Opium was legal in New Zealand, but Young Hee and others were concerned about the effect the drug was having on the Chinese community. He estimated that 30% had a habit and, very astutely, he made it of general concern by suggesting that Europeans were also becoming addicted. Young Hee was the driving force behind the anti-opium petition of 1899. He held many meetings and travelled around the country getting signatures which ultimately helped bring about the Opium Prohibition Act of 1901.^[16]

Unfortunately, the Act had disastrous consequences for the Chinese community as it gave the police the power to enter any Chinese home or business without a search warrant. This was a power the Chinese really resented. Those who were found with opium suitable for smoking, had to pay extortionate fines. It is unlikely that Young Hee intended, or could have predicted, these outcomes.

Young Hee was in his early 30s when he left Greymouth for bigger and better things, taking with him his wife and parents. The Greymouth Borough and Grey County councillors presented him with an illuminated address. It said that Young Hee had 'gained the respect of the whole community' through straightforwardness and honesty.^[17] In return Young Hee had special cards printed with a poem of farewell to his ‘esteemed friends’.

Young Hee settled in Hong Kong and became a wealthy man, owning a law firm and other businesses. He moved into education, starting as a senior master and supervisor at the Anglo-Chinese District School with the grand salary of £500 a year.  By 1910 was a supervisor at Queen’s College.^[18]

Despite being in New Zealand for only 17 years, Young Hee had made his mark with Europeans and Chinese. Yet today he is barely remembered. Why is this?

One reason could be the consequences of the Opium Prohibition Act 1901, which ended with the Chinese community being persecuted. Another reason could be Young Hee’s personal life. After the family left Greymouth, they were joined by an old school friend of Young Hee’s. Mary Ann Ford had also been a good student and worked as a dressmaker after she had left school.^{[19], [20]}

While the rest of the party continued to Canton, Young Hee and Mary Ann Ford stayed in Hong Kong. It is not clear whether they were married under English law, but they went on to have four children: Vivienne May (1903), Violet Ruby (1904), Rose Noel (1906) and Augustus Albert in 1913.^[21] The newspapers in Greymouth maintained a stony silence. Mary Ann Ford was never mentioned again and the once popular and admired Young Hee was mentioned only very occasionally. When Mary Ann’s father, died only his son William was mentioned.^[22]

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