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Aliens of the Tweed and Brunswick

REFERENCES

Chinese

 

Byron Bay Record:
28Jul06: Willie Young, green grocer, fruiterer, confectioner and produce merchant.
11Jul08: Sam Ling, Mullum fruiterer
25Dec08: W. Young of Shirley St.

Mullumbimby Star:                  
3Feb06: Chinese Storekeeper assaulted. Charlie Man Wah??
17Oct07: Ernest Hollis Neath bushranging for ‘Johns’
7Nov07: C. Man Wah on scratch with C. and T. Patras in Sheffield handicap.
4Jun08: C. Man Wah on 17yd handicap in Sheffield Handicap. Theo Patras on 18yds.
~Jul08: Georgie Ah Yet cook at one of the pubs.
11Jul08: Sam Ling, Mullum Fruiterer, dies after kick by horse.
25Mar09: New Chinese Consul-General, Liang Lun Shun. …..The Consul-general did not come to say how Australian Legislation, such as the Alien Immigration Restriction Act, was regarded in
China. … Some things, however, struck him as peculiar. ‘I understand, he said, ‘that the Chinese who come here are required to pass an education test by translating some passage in English at dictation. I wonder how the situation placed vice versa would appeal to an Australian’.
8Apr09 and 13May09: The Yellow Horror.Touring Japanese picture show in North QLD accused with spying: ‘To keep Australia White should be the first care of Australians, and to do that it needs more than a few torpedo boats….. This story was repeated around Asia, prompting an Asian based reporter to have an article published in Australia and repeated in the Star: ….. In Japan it (the story) provokes derision, and much ‘chaffing’ of Australians. Just now, in fact, Australians are the most laughed-at people in the world – at any rate, in Japan and China; and the many Australians who live in the East are often tempted to disown their nationality on that account. One does not particularly mind one’s country being disliked or abused; he can always stand up for it in that case. But when it is ridiculed, and, as every Australian out here is well aware, justly ridiculed, for being quite needlessly miss-ish and hysterical, he does not like it. Fortunately, the Japanese people do not now take the spy stories seriously.

23Jun10: Two ‘Israelites of the House of David’ who claim to be of the scattered ton  tribes of Israel, preached in Mullumbimby streets last week, and attracted much attention by their appearance.
30Jun10: Tragedy in Lismore. Japanese murder. A shocking tragedy took place in Lismore some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning, a Japanese named Mory Mase (aka Ozi Mosi Mori) shooting a white woman, Mrs Frahms, and a chinaman, Jack Davy…… The woman was the proprietress of the Federal Laundry, in
Keen Street, the Japanese being employed there..….Mori Mase had been in Lismore for two years and was quite and affable. It is however, characteristic of his race, to, under a placid exterior, conceal a passionate nature, which frequently verges on the treacherous.
27Aug10: Chinese Masonic Hall opened Moree. Celestials
29May13: Georgie Ah Yet on 20yds  handicap Empire Day Birthday Race + ‘Scarabalotti’ on 8yds, J. Karkagis on 20yds, Nutta Singh on 3yds .

5Feb14: Charlie Ah Ching… Bangalow
26Mar14: Sam Lee applies to Council to lease part of The Botanical Gardens at showground for market garden.
30Apr14: George Duck, a celestial,with a shop in town …storing food in his bedroom.
3Sep14: Lo Jung donates to Mullum war fund
29Apr15: P.T. Kurilho/P.J. Kunisho opens Japanese Laundry opposite School of Arts. Cleaning and Pressing
21Jan15: Sam Lee of Botanical Gardens wants lease of 30 acres for market garden. Been advertising for a couple months and no takers.

17Feb16: The Chinese of Murbah propose to give an exhibition of fire works, the admittance fee to go to the local patriotic fund.
9Mar16: A Confucian Vegetable Vendor… Coraki… confronted a snake… ‘Take that you -----German’
6Apr16: A ring of four chinamen accused of selling
Tweed bananas as Fiji bananas. One Kwong fu Liu (of the firm of Wing, Sang & Co)…. Plus comment by Tweed Daily
26May16: The Heathen Chinee still evades the law and keeps busy taking good golden quids out of
Australia. What about killing a Chinaman for luck?
29Jun16: A Chinaman was advertising for a cook and a laundress in a district paper last week – ‘private family’ was one of the inducements
20Jul16: White
Australia: The advent of 15 Chinamen to work a banana farm on the Main Arm is causing perturbation of spirit in many papers. The Sydney correspondent of the Brisbane ‘Daily Mail’ says: ‘Fifteen Chinamen have arrived at Byron Bay to engage in banana cultivation on the Tweed River. It is said to be a most profitable occupation, and one not requiring any superhuman talents. Both the home and foreign consumption is large. Your Queensland bananas are well and favourably known, but now it behoves you to look to your laurels. There is no knowing what triumphs in bananarial art 15 Chinamen may produce. Doubtless ere long we shall only buy Tweed bananas – pure Chinese grown!” The Tweed Daily then explains that they did not go to the Tweed at all but to the Brunswick. The plantation which the chows went to is owned by a Chinamen, and the natural effect followed. So long as the Australian Parliament allows Chinamen and Hindoos or other coloured races to own land there will always be these howls, and the White Australia policy a farce.
3Aug16: Main Arm…. A Number of Chinese, on a property recently purchased from Mr A. McKinnon, intend laying down 60 acres under banana and fruit trees. Clearing land with 20 'fellow-countrymen'. There are 60 families in the immediate vicinity of Main Arm.
3Aug16: A fourteen year old boy called Hockey went bushranging for ‘Johns’ in Goonengerry
22Aug16: It is said that the Chinese are giving 22/- for a good sovereign.

6Dec17: George Tim, Chinese cook at Court House Hotel, threw a piece of ‘delf’ at the proprietor, Frank Harkness.
16May18: Willie Wah wins prize at School of Arts Picture Night
4Jul18: Fong Chong and Sam Lee (or Hing Lee?) donate veggies to raise money for War Chest Fund.

19Jun19: Grand Patriotic Sports Day: Charlie Fong, Ah Sup, Hing Lee, Jimmy You Sou, Sum Foun, Sam Lee, Hop Lee, D. Fong.
10Jul1919: Councillor Banner, Pres of Tweed District Council of the Primary Producers Union returned to Billinudgel after conference of Executive Sydney where it was decided to treat the matter of urgency the danger arising from the invasion of the
Tweed and Brunswick districts by Chinese speculators, bent on securing the very choicest lands for the purpose of banana growing. …… Banner pointed out to the Politicians that there was a regular influx of Chinese to the Tweed and Brunswick districts of late, and that these gentlemen were intent upon seeking out all the most suitable spots in the localities named for banana growing. The invasion of the Celestials in his opinion constituted a big menace. It was detrimental to the best interests of the white population and more especially to the returned soldiers whom the Government was endeavouring to establish on land in the banana growing industry. Under the existing laws Government lands could not be acquired by the Chinese, but these people were offering big inducements to freeholders to dispose of virgin country at a high purchase price. Cr Banner pointed out the undue competition which would ultimately result if the Chinese were allowed to step in at the present juncture and take possession of the choicest banana lands. It was a well known fact that these people had ample funds at their disposal, thus precluding our own race from participating in the benefits from this particular industry. He especially emphasised the great headway the Chinese had already made in the Mullumbimby and Main Arm areas, and pointed out that Chinese merchants and growers were already in negotiation with other freeholders with a view to taking over their properties at a lucrative figure….
4Sep19: Editorial. ….. at the present rate of increase there will soon only be Chinamen here! Whether the Chinaman is a bad or good citizen, whether he works hard or not, whether he gets high wages or low wages, whether he spends his money or hoards it, or whether a White Australia is only an ideal to be scoffed at need not be touched on. The main fact is that the Chinaman is a Union on his own and he is out to break the White Man’s Union in the banana industry holusbolus. When half – only half – of the banana production is in the hands of the Chinamen, what will be the position of the White Man in the trade? The Chinamen will control the market and the White Man will be gradually squeezed out. Maybe, as has been said, the Chinaman will give a higher price and pay cash down, thus the seller apparently makes a bigger profit and gets a quicker return. But what kind of inheritance is left for his family? Taking away all sentimental reasons, the Chinamen is a bad business proposition in this country. A meeting is to be held at Murwillumbah to protest against fruitgrowers having dealings with the Chinaman, and most likely a few will take a pledge to have no more such dealings but the ‘other cove’ will keep on selling as usual. There is only one way, and that is a law made that only members of approved races hold freehold titles. This has been done in other countries and can be done in Australia too.
11Sep19: There was a fairly large attendance at the public meeting called by the Fruitgrowers Association…… to deal with the question of the invasion of the industry by the Chinamen. After a deal of discussion, the following resolution was carried: - ‘That this meeting protests against assisting aliens and anyone of the Chinese race of being allowed to hold land in freehold or leasehold tenure so as to engage in industries which permit of competition by them with the white population of Australia, more especially the banana industry, and urges legislation be introduced without delay to give effect to this protest.’…… A committee was appointed to carry out propaganda work….. The Tweed branch of the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League has sent the following….” …requests that all transfers or leases of land in our district to Chinese be held in abeyance and rendered void pending settlement of returned soldiers in the district. Strong deputations being formed urging legislation to deal with yellow peril in relation to the banana industry…..”
18Sep19: The allegation that Chinese banana growers on the North Coast are being financed by a syndicate of Chinese merchants, which is said to have a capital of £50,000 has been under notice of the Minister for Lands by Mr Perry MLA and others. Mr Ashford points out that while he is in sympathy with the proposal to exclude Chinese from acquiring banana lands on the North Coast, the matter would appear to be really one for the Federal authorities. ….
25Sep19: Editorial titled ‘The Inheritance that was Sold for a Mess of Pottage’: Here is the first instance recorded – it is from the first book of the Bible: ‘And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with the same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called
Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he swore unto him; and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.’
The last sentence of that quotation clearly depicts the minds of the Esaus of this district, they ‘despise their birthright’ and, what is worse, they despise the birthright of their children. This paper pointed out before that the gaining a little (or even a big) profit now is counteracted if our children have no land to live on or are driven off what is left to them by undesirable neighbours. The meeting of members of the Fruitgrowers’ Association held in the School of Arts on Saturday last was a very tame affair. The proposer and seconder of one of the motions and the proposer of the other paid their membership fees at the meeting. The first speaker gave the Chinaman such a character that if it all had been taken in as the truth, the pity is that the Chinese do not own and rule the earth. The Transvaal imported some of these ‘industrious, lawabiding and well behaved’ race, and within a year the British Government had to arm the Boers with shot guns to protect themselves and their families from the peaceful Ching! Of course, we have never had anything like that in Australia, but as the numbers increase so will the number of rogues. This paper has nothing to say against the Chinese here at present; so far as is known, they are peaceful and law abiding, but what of the future contingents? Another quaint argument by the same speaker was that the Chinese helped to win the War by working behind the trenches for the Allies! They worked simply because they were paid dashed good wages for same. Another of the good old arguments was ‘The liberty of the subject.’ How much liberty has the subject now? He is hemmed in by all kinds of laws and penalties. The subject can drink beer all day up till six o’clock in a pub, but after that his liberty on that contract finishes – and so with other things. This paper is open to conviction, but not with arguments like the above. Let one Chinese supporter come forward and prove the superiority of the Chinaman over the White Man and also state the advantage to be gained by importing Chinamen to the North Coast.
25Sep19: Half page report on the meeting under the heading ‘The Chinese Invasion – A Poor Meeting at Mullumbimby.’ ….Mr G. Barnes called attention to the fact that the meeting was placed in rather an awkward position in discussing the subject as Harry Tong, representing Tim Young & Co, was present at the meeting. ….. Mr W.R.Baker said the question presented some difficulties. The Chinese were legally here – many were natural born and others were naturalised. ….and he had always found them law-abiding citizens. They were developing Australia in a way that we could not have done. …… They must admit, also, that the Chinese were paying a high price for land which was practically useless for any other purpose. ….. Mr Baker…then referred to a piece of land which the Government had turned down for repatriation at £11 per acre, and which the Chinaman afterwards paid £26 for. They were now asked to interfere with a man’s liberty. So far as he (the speaker) could see it was the Chinaman’s virtues and not his vices that was the trouble. If the Chinaman could make money in this country the white man ought to be able to do so to…. He never knew a Chinaman to repudiate his liabilities….There are cliques in Australia such as the I.W.W’s and the Bolsheviks, who are 50 times worse than the Chinamen.
In reply to a question, Harry Tong said the wages paid to Chinese on their plantations were £2/10/- the lowest, and up to £4/4/- per week with keep, for six days a week. The working hours were nine hours per day, with double time on Sundays. Mr Alan Gibson (returned soldier) asked Harry Tong if they were agreeable to pay the white man the same wages? Harry Tong said it was a matter of opinion. The Chairman
(Mr J.I.Stewart of Mullum Creek) asked Would the white man be prepared to pay the Chinamen the wage? It amounted to the same thing. Mr Gibson said they would not pay half that wage.
Mr A.W.Wallis said when he was fencing round the Chinese plantation at Main Arm the men were getting £2 per week and keep. (Harry Tong: Yes, that was right, but the wages have been increased. We pay the men double time for Sundays when they have to work.) Mr Wallis continuing, said in Queensland he knew that Chinamen had plantations and got all they could out of them, and allowing disease to spread all over the place. The argument that Chinamen were taking up land that the white man refused was no good, and he knew white men were working places which the Chinamen would not take on.
….. The Chinamen were paying a big price for land, and the returned soldier could not take it up at the price.
Mr Rutledge (a returned soldier) said….. the price the Chinamen were paying for the land was prohibiting the returned soldier from taking up the land. Why should they have to pay £26 per acre for land when it was only worth £14. It was alright for Mr Baker to say the Chinaman was a law-abiding citizen, but was the Chinaman going to fight to protect Mr Baker’s farm?
Mr Baker said I say the Chinamen and Japanese did fight for us and in a large measure kept our land free.
Mr Rutledge said Yes, and next time they will be fighting to get your land……
Harry Tong here left the meeting…….
Mr Baker’s motion was lost.
The Chairman said it would be a dangerous thing to allow a big influx of Chinese in the district. There were two classes of people holding banana country. One section was there to make a living off their holdings. The other section was holding the land as a side line, waiting a chance to sell to advantage, and he supposed they could not blame them for disposing of it to the highest bidder. But there was another big question, and that was the settlement of the returned soldiers. If the Chinese kept coming in, they would soon monopolise all the banana country, as they were offering higher prices. It was stated there was a fund of £100,000 established in Sydney with the idea of buying up the land. When the white people began selling bananas here four years ago, the Chinese ruled the market, but things have changed since then. Now there is a large number of white agents, which was a very good thing for the white growers. They were getting good prices today, and the Chinese agents were forced to come into line, as we ruled the market. As long as the white growers were loyal to themselves he had no fears as to the future of the industry. It would be their own fault if the Chinese got the control back again. There were glaring exceptions, for they had men going down to Sydney to ask the Government to bring in the laws, who at the same time disposed of the whole of their fruit to the Chinese…..
Then under the heading ‘Billinudgel Takes a Strong Stand’ more of the same at a meeting organised by the RSSIL. …..Every possible remedy, from bombs delivered by aeroplanes to amended legislation, was suggested….. and all were very emphatic in declaring that the alien invasion must be checked by some means.
One speaker said that he had gone to Europe to fight for Australia, but when he came back to his own township he began to think he had been mistaken and had been fighting for China. Another speaker wanted to know if our nearly 60,000 dead had laid down their lives in order that Australia might be preserved for the Chinese; another speaker asked did they want these people in their midst, were they desirable citizens and would our people inter-marry with them?
All resolutions were carried unanimously. ….Write to Billy Hughes (The Diggers Friend)….asking if the evil of Chinese acquiring land for banana growing cannot be checked under the White Australia Policy, and pointing out that the competition is not fair to returned soldiers….. that it be pointed out to owners of land that it is not patriotic to sell such land to Chinese….. That European banana agents in Sydney be written to, asking them to as far as possible dispose of bananas to retailers of European descent.
The tone of the meeting throughout was very hostile to the alien invasion and there can be no doubt that this question calls for serious attention on the part of the authorities.
2Oct19: ‘The Chinese Invasion – The Ministerial Reply’. Billy Hughes replied to a question in the House that the matter of the Chinese invasion of the banana industry in New South Wales had not been brought under his notice, but he would make inquiries and see what information they had on the subject.
The Secretary of the Tweed Fruitgrowers’ Association has received a letter from Mr Massy Greene covering a communication on the subject from
(The Minister)….. Mr Greene added It seems perfectly clear that the land matter is one which is entirely in the hands of the State Parliament….. and I think that if the State Government has any sympathy with the representations you are making, they should take immediate action to prevent the Chinese obtaining a stranglehold on this industry…..
The letter from Mr Glynn, Minister for Home and Territories, is as follows…….  a few weeks ago an application was received for permission for two Chinese from Fiji to enter the Commonwealth and remain here for three years to manage a banana plantation in the Northern Rivers District, but I refused to grant the request. The Commonwealth Government could not, of course, interfere in the matter of land selection in New South Wales by Chinese who are domiciled residents of Australia.
30Oct19: Captain Carmichael, who returned to Sydney on Monday, from his tour of the North Coast, reports that the returned soldiers of that part of the state are considerably troubled…. Same letter as on Federal File.

29Jan20: Ah Sam, alias Tom Choy, cook at Webb’s Commercial Hotel, charged with being a prohibited immigrant. Jumped ship from London 17yrs ago. Six months goal and to be deported back to London.
3Jun20: Ah Buck, all smiles, appeared on a charge of failing to give notice of his change of residence….
20Jun1920: Mullum RSL advised that Govt will resume all Chinese banana farms. ………squeezing out white growers. The Chinese were not an asset to the country, either from a financial or a commercial point of view.
24Jun20: The Chinese Invasion. It will be remembered that… returned soldiers found…the Chinese were buying up….
2Sep20: Lou Sam, failed to notify change of address. Tim Lee, another celestial, ditto. + Tiy Sang & Co near Coopers place Main Arm.
4Oct20: J.T. Keating, Undersecretary Dept of Lands wrote to J. Kunkler, Inspector of Soldiers Settlements Mullum that Dept ….not prepared to resume Chinese plantations for Soldier Settlements at this stage.
7Oct20: Billinudgel Delegate RSL: 33 Asiatics employed on a block of 150 acres
21Oct20: J. T. Keating, Under Sec Dept Lands letter to J. Kunkler, inspector of Soldiers Settlements Mullum, that no proposal to resume Chinese plantations for soldier settlements at this stage. + Peter Hong Billinudgel.
16Dec20 and 16Jan21: Articles on Chinese Plantations.

27Jan21: A Mad Celestial on Chinese at Moree.
31Mar21: Article ‘Chinese on Banana Land’ advised that a survey by the District Surveyor at Grafton established that the Chinese owned 333 acres and leased 236 acres on the North Coast, two thirds of which were under bananas. The under Sec of Dept of lands wrote to Mr P.S. Perdriau MLA: Your suggestion for the resumption and resale of lands held by the Chinese is at the present juncture impractical…….. but ….passed to the Attorney General who, it is understood, has also under consideration a proposed Aliens Bill.
14Apr21: Meeting of Fruitgrowers Association talks of setting up a Co-op but afraid Chinese will buy up all the shares.
16Jun1921: Editorial The Banana Industry. Banana tariff increased to keep out Fiji bananas… .sanctioned ostensibly for the purpose of bolstering the banana industry in
Australia at the expense of the fruit growers in Fiji by black labour or other tints of coloured labour…… The white Australia argument is a lot of hot air……. crippling Fiji’s basic industry and talk of Fiji boycotting Australian products.
4Sep1921: Article The Dictation Test. QLD not so backward as NSW and introduced a bill banning anybody, owners or labourers, from the banana industry who had not passed a dictation test.
15Sep21:  Rev Yee, Chinese Presbyterian of Newcastle visits town.
6Oct21: Editorial on banana growers sending poor quality fruit to market. 

Early 1920s mail run Wilsons Creek and Huonbrook: Chee Hoy, Bick You, Chun Jap, Fan qun Ping, See Ho, Rini Youn, Chun Rouy and Chun Gee.
12Jan22 and subsequent: Start of the banana glut.
26Jan22: Mullumbimby will continue to go ahead notwithstanding the slump in butter and bananas……..
31Aug22: Two blocks, 150 and 166 acres Coopers Creek, balloted and only returned soldiers allowed in.
27Apr25: Ernest Hollis Neath stands as a Labour candidate for state seat of Byron. 5Jun25: Gets 232 votes, second lowest.
20Feb26: Sam Lee interpreter at Mullum court for Lee Hop. Lee used insulting words to Alex Samios of Marble Bar Cafe.
29Dec
1933: John Ching (aged 84) and Lum Shup market gardeners of St Helena, sprung for sleeping in the same hut in which they stored their produce.

27Dec47: Said Miss M.J. Martyn in her ‘History of the Tweed’ series: At the close of the Great War, returning soldiers took up hillside lands….. Banana prices boomed and with them the price of land. Areas of standing scrub at £40 per acre were sold at Tomewin. Hindus and Chinese joined the throng of settlers and careful action by the whites only just prevented a peaceful penetration.

12Nov54: George Goland dies Lismore

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General Bananas
Prices for Banana patches were running away. Advert 27Jul1916 for ten year lease of banana land at Billinudgel at 30/- per acre and no rent for first year. Option to purchase at £25/acre. 3Aug1916 uncleared land in ‘the high country’ going for £13/acre, and Even at Byron Bay 10 acres were sold for £35/acre and this was uncleared land 3 miles from the port. Talk of the town 24Aug1917 was £120 paid for small full-bearing patch in Tweed, and at Cobaki 2 blocks changed hands for £65 and £70 per acre. 13Dec1919 a 12yr lease for 8 acres of bananas with 7 acres bearing at Mullumbimby Creek was up for £400. Few months later on 1Apr1920 a lease for 10 acres (5 bearing and 2 newly planted) was going for £1160.
4May1917: 27/6 paid for a case of bananas Sydney. 8May1919 bananas bringing 28/- a case at Sydney markets. But slump 18Mar1920 when bananas bringing between 12/- and 20/- a case at the Sydney markets. In 1919 the Tweed set a record for a return of £2300 off 10 acres in one year. Fire 16Oct1919 burnt out 25 acres Messrs C and J Kuckler’s plantation and losses estimated at £3000, the standing crop of bunches being worth £2000.
In 1917 Mullum railhead dispatched only 3591 cases but in 1918 dispatched 20,068 cases. Billinudgel 5374 and 9119.
1May1919: Govt buys up 840 acres at Main Arm for soldier settlers. In 1918 T.H.King had his Main Arm farm resumed by the Govt for £12/acre after arguing it was worth £20/acre. Pissed off letter 6Mar1919.
7Oct20: Great scarcity houses Mullum. Demand exceeds supply.
14Oct20: 80 acres freehold banana land all Scrub with 25 acres planted. Good snap £4000. £1600 down, balance 6%, 5yrs.
2Oct20 flow on to Brunswick Heads. Land has doubled in value in the last 18mths or so and the value is still rising. Half acre block
Tweed St bought for £20 a couple of years ago now £375. Another block went for £250 and changed hands 2 days later for £300. New cottage in Tweed St sold for £700.
12May21 two cottages on Brunswick Rd (Argyle St?) on three allotments offered for £350 each.
5Jan22: Start of the banana glut. Auction at Bruns saw bidding failing to reach reserves for cottages (highest offer £825) and only two vacant blocks sold - £150 and £157/10/-.
26Jan22: But lead and lag shows building activity still going on. Carkagis upgrade restaurant. Frank Harkness buys freehold of bottom pub for £5500.
Retail bananas Mullum fall to 6d. a bunch after being 1/6 a doz.

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Other Chinese Banana References
George Stephen Goland: National Archives of Australia (NSW): SP1732/4, Box 18.

The New Gold Mountain; The Chinese in Australia 1901-1921. By C. F. Yong  Published by Raphael Arts Pty Ltd, South Australia, 1977.
Pg 48. The Banana Trade and the Chinese. Mainly Nth QLD. Banana Industry Preservation Act 1921 banned Chinese.
Pg 77. ‘Chinese competition’ in the Banana Trade and the Banana Growing Industry. Mullum. 1916 the Tim Young Fruit Company, Sydney Branch, purchased 65 acres of freehold Mullum. Successful first crop 1918 encouraged many other Sydney fruit merchants including the Wing Sang, the Wing On and the Tiy Sang, to enter industry. The Sang On Tiy, a new company, founded by several partners of the Wing Sang and Wing ON, purchased 150 avres of freehold Billinudgle. By Sep1919, Chinese fruit merchants in Sydney had acquired 335 acres freehold and 144 acres leased on North Coast as against 3390 acres freehold by Aust growers.
Re conflict: William Gockson, Pres of NSW Chinese Chamber of Commerce, wrote SMH arguing that a handful of Chinese taking up small holdings of land would in no way harm industry and the public interest.
Pg 243
Land Ownership 1919.

Name

Acres

Freehold or Leasehold

Location

Employees

The Tiy Sang

115

freehold

Mullum

10 men

Gockson & Marchut

150

freehold

Billinudgel

10 men

The Tim Young

70

freehold

Mullum

16 men

The Wing Lee

50

leasehold

Mullum

9 men

The Hop Lee

15

leasehold

Billinudgel

3 men

Fong Doong Chong

15

leasehold

Mullum

2 men

Bong Get

10

leasehold

Mullum

2 men

Fong Lee

27

leasehold

Crabbes Creek

9 men

The Sam Sing

27

leasehold

Billinudgel

4 men

Total = 335 acres (freehold), 144 (leasehold), 65 men
Tweed Daily refs. 2 to 20 Oct1919,
SMH 10, 25 and 28Oct1919

National Archives file 1916/2047: 
Ald Robert White of the Lismore Municipal Council  wrote to Mr Nesbitt MLA on 4Jul1916 forwarding a clipping from the Daily Telegraph, which seems to have got hold of the story before the local rags.
(Dear Mr Nesbitt,
Kindly read enclosed par from Wednesday’s Telegraph. As you are aware a Chinese ring have been controlling the banana industry in Australia for years, and the progress of the industry in the Tweed was the only ray of light visible, the Chinese not having the control of this sector. Now it appears they are going to have a cut here. Is there any way they can be prevented from flooding our district? Will you kindly look into the matter. R. White, Ex-Mayor of Lismore.)
Nesbitt sent it on to Walter Massey Green MHR who set in train an investigation, which eventually gave all the Chinese a clean bill of health as they were ‘old residents of the Commonwealth’ and nothing could be done.]

National Archives File 1920/5209: 
10Sep19: Mr F. W. Stuart, Secretary of the Tweed Fruit Growers Association writes to Mr W. Massy Greene MHR, Minister for Trade and Customs.
Dear Sir,
As a result of a Public Meeting held here on the 6th inst., which was called for the purpose of protecting against the influx of Chinese who are entering into the Banana Industry, I have been instructed to forward the following resolutions, which were carried una
nimously.
(1)  
“That this Meeting protests against Asiatic Aliens, or persons of the Chinese race, being allowed to hold land of Freehold or Leasehold tenure so as to engage in industries which permit of competition by them with the White population of Australia, more especially the Banana Industry, and urges that legislation be, without delay, introduced to give effect to this protest.”
(2)   “That the Federal Representative for this district, the Hon. W. Massy Greene, be informed of the position regarding Chinese in this district, and requested to present the Resolution to the Federal Government.”
(3)   “That the Government of NSW be requested, pending the Federal Government taking action, to hold up the transfer of land to Chinese and also the registration of leases.”
I would like to point out that during the last few weeks we have several Chinese in this district inspecting virgin country and banana plantations, with a view to purchasing.
You are no doubt aware that a Chinese company have
(sic) entered into this business in the vicinity of Mullumbimby, and this being evidently a success to these people, prompts them to go further into the country.
I feel that it is unnecessary for me to point out the seriousness of these people entering into an industry, which has been developed by the white man and has proved such a wonderful asset to this district, and offers such wonderful opportunities to our returned soldiers.
We hope you will treat this matter seriously and impress upon the Government the urgent need of introducing legislation as required.
The Returned Soldiers League have co-operated with this movement
.

16Sep19: Massey Greene writes to The Hon P. McM. Glynn, K.C. M.P., Minister for Home and Territories.
….I will be very glad if you would look into this question for me, and see whether there is any means at all that the Commonwealth Government could adopt that would prevent the industry falling into the hands of the Chinese, as I am satisfied that it will be utterly ruined once thay get hold of it.
This, at all events, has been the experience in Northern Queensland, and I feel sure that if they obtain a leading position in the banana industry in the Northern Rivers of NSW, they will first drive every white man out of it, and then it will not be long before the industry as such becomes defunct
.
17Sep19: Glynn replies to Greene and advises he had just refused applications for 2 Chinese from Fiji to manage a plantation on the Northern Rivers, but otherwise advises ‘that there are no laws to prevent any Chinese domiciled in
Australia from entering the banana industry.
26Sep19: Green forwards another letter from Mr E.C. Upton, Sec of the Brunswick Fruit Growers Assoc, who are also alarmed over the growth of the Chinese in the industry in their neck of the woods.
2Oct19: Glynn again writes and repeats his earlier advice.
2Oct19: Mr Mackay asks a question of Glynn on the floor of the House of Reps:
1.      Whether information has reached him that a large number of Chinese are endeavouring to acquire practically all the available land in Northern New South Wales that is suitable for banana culture.
2.      Will he state whether the Commonwealth possesses any power to prevent Chinese purchasing land or entering into an industry that is capable of great development by Australians.
Glynn replied that yes the Govt had received info that Chinese were endeavouring to acquire large parcels of land and that ‘The power to take action in the direction indicated is not possessed by the Commonwealth, it being vested in the State authorities.

28Oct19: Newspapers get hold of the story:  Daily Telegraph, Sydney.
Chinese On The Tweed. Banana-Growing Activity. Passport Leakages Suggested.
Mr A. C. Carmichael, who returned to Sydney yesterday from a tour of the North Coast, reports that returned soldiers in that part of the State are considerably troubled by the influx of Chinese and the purchase by Chinese capitalists of large areas of banana-growing land, to the exclusion of the returned soldier.
“This land is worth about £100 per acre at least”, said Mr Carmichael, “and one buyer is reputed to have stated that he had £100,000 capital to invest on behalf of Sydney buyers. The cheapness of Chinese labour on these blocks enables the purchaser to offer a better price than the Government is prepared to offer, and the feelings are working up so hot that I should not wonder if another Lambing Downs incident should occur.”
“On one place 50 Chinese are employed, and on another 35, and I find there is the most extraordinary laxity in either registering or checking these arrivals as they come through. A number of these Chinese seem to come direct from china, and how they are permitted to land in view of the restrictions supposed to be in force is not apparent. For example, in the small town of Mullumbimby I found that 28 Chinamen had cone through and registered during the current year. Of these 10 had landed at Thursday Island during 1919, and their passports show that this is their first landing. If this is done in one small township the leakage over Australia must be very considerable.”
28Oct19: Sydney Morning Herald also carries longer story of tour of Captain Carmichael MLA, of The Soldiers and Citizens Political party.
Soldiers Grievances. Tardy Repatriation Methods. Cheap Chinese Labour.
… “There are two matters” he said, “that are troubling the soldiers considerably. “The first is that continued delay in reparation matters, and the want of finality owing to the local committees having no power to act. …
The second matter that is troubling the returned soldiers is the influx of Chinese and the purchase by Chinese capitalists….
1Nov19: Govt sets in train investigation. And asks Carmichael to put up.
Home and Territories writes to Collector of Customs. …I shall be glad if you will ascertain if Mr Carmichael can furnish any further information respecting the alleged leakage, then refer this matter to the police authorities for favour of careful investigation with a view to ascertaining whether the Chinese in question are new chums or merely old residents who have returned from recent trips to China or migrated from other parts of the commonwealth.
22Dec19: Minister directs Home and Territories to write to Inspector Gabriel of the Crown Solicitors Office ….telling him to proceed from Brisbane to Mullumbimby and district to make full inquiries. He should ascertain the number of Chinese in the district and where they have come from.
Refer especially to 10 said to have landed TI in 1919 for first time. He should examine all documents and clear of doubt regarding passports and registration certificates. Special attention to be given to apparent lack of knowledge of English.

3Dec19: Inspector General of NSW Police advises Home and Territories Dept that his Mullum police investigated and found ‘…no case is known of any prohibited Chinese gaining illegal entry.’
13Dec19: Carmichael finally interviewed by police and reiterated that the Chinese he saw at Mullum were all young and could only utter the English phrase ‘Good Day”. Therefore they must all be recent illegal entries.
15Dec19: Collector of Customs interviews Carmichael. Same report. ‘… Mr Carmichael also informed me that he had seen passports at Mullumbimby police station and that endorsements on the ‘passports’ showed him that they had gradually worked their way south from Thursday Island working at various places until reaching the Northern  Rivers. … There is no doubt that ‘passports’ …were alien registration forms.
‘According to Mr Carmichael, the local residents, particularly the returned soldiers, are much incensed against these Chinese, and during his visit there he had with difficulty restrained them from carrying out their intention of throwing the Chinese into the river. He is certain that serious trouble will occur there shortly
5Jan20: Home and Territories Dept give detailed instructions to Gabriel to get to Mullum post haste ’…with a view to making enquiries as to the alleged influx of Chinese prohibited immigrants.
9Feb20: Gabriel advises by telegram that he found Ah Sam, alias Tom Choy, alias Tom Kum, was a prohibited immigrant and that he had been sentenced to 6mths prison and deportation. Ah Sam wins separate security files 20/2185, 20/4777, 10/10774.
16Feb20: Gabriel advises that he was leaving Mullum 27Feb20 with ‘…important development re Treasury matter.’ No follow up ever given. Maybe separate file

3Mar20: Gabriel’s formal report to Dept of Home and Territories:
He examined… 147 Chinese throughout the district engaged in growing bananas, vegetables, sugar-cane etc….
The Chinese engaged in this district are nearly all old residents of the Commonwealth, having drifted from one place to another, and some just returmed from China on Cs,E.D.T. I found no passports as referred to by Capt. Carmichael, and no new chums as reported by him, and from enquiries I made at the police station the Sergeant of Police informed me that the so-called passports seen by Capt. Carmichael were Aliens Registration Cards that had been newly issued to Chinese arriving at Thursday Island on their return trip from China.
I interviewed Messrs Noble and Virtue Ltd., Land Agents of Mullumbimby, and they informed me that the ground in which the Chinese are now growing bananas successfully was offered to the Department of Repatriation at the price of £12 per acre, and, after due examination by that Department, was refused by them. The owner of the ground instructed the agents to again advertise it for sale. This was done and eventually sold to Chinese for £24 per acre.
In some instances bananas grown in this district are exellent, but in other instances I have seen bananas planted in 8 inches of sub-soil on top of rock
After finishing the whole of the gardens, plantations, etc., I examined a Chinese cook at the Commercial Hotel. His answers to me, in reply to questions, were very unsatisfactory, and I had him taken to the Police Station for examination. Although his face has considerably altered I identified him as Ah Sam, No 34, deserter from ‘Cheniston’ in 1914. He stoutly denied his identity, but both his photographs and thumbprints agreeing, I charged him with being a prohibited immigrant. As the Police Magistrate was arriving at Mullumbimby next morning, I conducted the case myself and convicted him, after which he admitted that he was the man and asked to be put on a boat going to London and not to China. He was sent to Grafton Goal to await deportation. On arrival in Sydney I informed the Customs authorities, and advised you by wire
.
10Mar20: Minister issues Press Statement because…’a lot of publicity was given to
Carmichael’s statement’
Chinese of the Tweed River
In October last, statements, which were attributed to Captain A.C. Carmichael, were made in the Sydney press concerning reports that the returned soldiers in the Tweed River district were considerably troubled by the influx of Chinese who were engaged in the banana-growing industry. It was stated the passports held by a number of the Chinese showed that they had landed at Thursday Island in 1919. It was suggested that they had arrived from China for the first time during the year, and that there must be an extraordinary laxity in the administration of the immigration restriction law.
In consequence of these statements a thorough investigation has been made by an officer of the Home and Territories Department, which is charged with the administration of the Immigration Act of the Commonwealth. The officer found that, with one exception, all the suspected Chinese were old residents of the Commonwealth who had drifted from various parts of Australia. Some of them had just returned from China and were readmitted, after identification, on presentation of certificates obtained prior to their departure from Australia. The so-called passports were Alien Registration Cards newly issued, in accordance with the usual practice, to these men on their arrival at Thursday Island, the first port of call in Australia. The only Chinese who could not satisfactorily establish his right to remain here was found to be identical with a deserter from an overseas ship. He was promptly arrested and will be deported back to China
.
14Mar20: Melbourne Age picks up story
15Mar20: The Cairns Post picks up story from Age
Minister disappointed that Sydney papers didn’t pick it up. No local papers appear to have picked it up.
29Mar20: Collector of Customs Cairns refers to story in paper and says
An exodus of Chinese from this district began some months ago, and I have reason to believe that most of the maize growers from Atherton and Talga, whose farms are now occupied by returned soldiers, will settle in New South Wales. Most of these Chinese have money, made out of growing maize.
On the 24th February 1920, 17 Chinese left Cairns per SS St. Albans for the South, 11 of the number holding tickets for Sydney. These were all Atherton and Tolga maize growers, who said they had no intention to return to North Queensland.
Three Chinese left for Sydney per SS Eastern on 13th March 1920, and it is certain that many more will follow during the next 6 months
.
End of File

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The Tweed Times and Brunswick Advocate
3May1899: See Lee v. Williams.
26Jul05: Chow Kum fruiterer
4Oct05: …Deliah endeavouring to lure kanakas into her spiders parlor
The opium smuggling of the heathen Chinese continues
That Murbah has a real magpie hue lately owing to the prevalence of so many blacks in town
11Oct05: Alex Ching, an aborigine…
20Dec05: Alex Chiung, aborigine, steals from Henry Bob, aborigine…
31Jan06: It must be 118 years since Captain Phillip Cook…so long as there were plenty of ‘possums to satiate the sharp appetite of the dusky potentates who ruled over Tumbulegum, Cudgen… Neither was there any occasion in those days for a liquor Act
At Byron Bay court the other day two men were fined for assaulting a Chinese storekeeper because he refused to serve them
10Mar06: Cane growers Nth Old leasing to Chinamen
25Apr06: Chinese market gardener south Murbah
26May06: Assyrian Hawker Aboud South Murbah.
George Sing, chinese market gardener of ‘Black’s Drain’. Everything lost in flood.
So far this year 829 Kanakas deported. History of Tweed article
21Jul06: Editorial Notes. White Aust… With the Kanaka gone, the white worker carries the industry in the palm of his hand
Jack Brown murder case ……the whole thing is the result of a secret society to keep up a white
Australia. The plan was to have a revolution against the blacks and Chinese, and kill them off. There are a number in the society, but we have kept it very quiet until we got some money to buy arms. We have had some drills and practice at bayonet work. He gave the names of a couple of Ballina boys, who, he said, were members of the Society.
29Aug06: Kanaka Deportation. Appointment of people under provisions of Pacific Island Labourers Act to bring before the courts unemployed Kanakas so their deportation might be enforced before the end of the year
Murders by Chinamen and Hindoos are becoming monotonous
Even the Kanaka is business like
. … informed employer he couldn’t get to work because had a funeral on Tweed
7Nov06: Bruce Smith loves the Chinaman with an undying love
The Catholic Press takes exception to the elevation of Ewing to Min Home Affairs 

4May07: A Chinaman experienced a very lively 5 minutes on Murbah bridge….
3Jul07: The chimney of Chow Cum’s business… on fire
22Jul07: Fiji appeals for removal of duty on bananas
24Jul07: Steamer Fido sunk. Chinese crew Cudgen
31Jul07: Chinese Crew at Tweed. Train to Byron Bay
17Aug07: The alien trouble is very rapidly putting in an appearance in Casino. Nearly every hotel has a Chinese cook and soon a Japanese laundry will be started…, Added to a large store shortly to be opened by Hindoos… looks like the white man will have to consider the alien question very seriously.
2Nov07: Fire in a Chinaman’s shop Lismore
4Dec07: Ding Du, Chinaman, fined for supplying Tommy Dodd, aborigine, with bit of charcoal opium
2Mar10: The Wiley Chinaman. Wong Yell of the ‘Chinese Garden’ Murbah arrested as a prohibited immigrant

Tweed Herald and Brunswick Chronicle:
4Mar1898: George Sing, market gardener. George Tim Cook Club House hotel.
2Mar10: The Wiley Chinese. Wong Yeu arrested at ‘Chinese Garden’ Murbah as a prohibited migrant.

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Tweed Daily
18Mar14: Willie Young of Byron Bay. ‘The Healer’
30Apr14: Lum Yuen sells his share in garden and business Duranbah to Sue Sing.
6Jun14: Invasion of Alien Labour. Banana Industry. White grown bananas.
6Jul14: Councillors Interview Chinese Doctor – Curt Reception:  Full page article
Willie Young Byron Bay. …A glance in (by the Bangalow Herald reporter) showed it to be crammed with people, old, young, and middle aged, all herded together in semi-darkness. It was understood that these people had received tickets of admission on the previous Monday and their turn had only come on Saturday…. But his premises are not fit to accommodate the number of people whose faith in Mongolian Allopathy prompts them to resort to the chow for relief….
29Jun14: Mongolian Allopathy. Willie Young.
7Jul1914: Willie Young Defies Council: The Chinese doctor of
Byron Bay…, begins investing in Byron Bay property market and recently purchased a terrace of cottages on the same block as his humpy for a hospital. Council orders him to concrete the ground under his proposed hospital, as the place is a quagmire.
7Jul14: Australian Bananas – The Question of Quality: …With the White Australia principle in force, surely the Australian producer is entitled to reasonable protection against the foreign grower, who works with cheap coloured labour, and gets longer daily hours of labor, enabling him to swamp our markets and cripple local enterprise…. Fiji….
The inferiority of a large proportion of the Chinese-grown Queensland banana is hardly open to question, but the Tweed River fruit is in quite a different class, and can readily be palmed off as a prime Fijian. – Ed. “D.T.”

14Jul14: The Banana Trade: ‘Vigilans’ in the Sydney ‘Bulletin’ writes: - The question of protecting the Australian banana against the subsidised importation from Fiji is a live one. ………Fiji is North Queensland’s great competitor in the banana trade, but whereas Queensland is becoming a white man’s country, Fiji is a land of cheap slavery…….A duty of 3s per cental is required…. There is an increasing number of white growers. Heretofore, practically all the bananas in North Queensland were grown by Chinese, who exhausted the soil, and then passed on to fresh areas every few years. The abandoned areas are taken generally by men who entered upon the growing of sugar. The Queensland Government is endeavouring to get the banana industry into white hands. It is found almost impossible to do anything with Chinese growers, who persist in picking fruit in an immature state and sending it forward. In the southern part of Queensland, and especially around Brisbane, the industry is entirely in the hands of white growers, and some splendid fruit is grown……….
23Jul14: Chow Kum and George Tau donate to some fund
29Oct14: Chow Doctor’s Hospital Byron Bay
23Nov14: Assault on Chinaman Jimmy Toy. Court case Murbah. Stanley Owen and George Young. Australia Hotel. 

11Dec15: Typical advert of George G. Young, Chinese Herbalist of Bangalow.
25Jan1916: Joe Sing, Lee Lau, W. Choy, C. Laue, A. Lee, J. Quan, A. Leu, R. Koah in Allies Day Handicap Murbah (+ J. Antonarius, J. Aroney,
Jim Aroney, M. Tsikles, P Aroney
11Feb1916: Celebration of Chinese New Year Murbah with yobbo Australian guests and reporter. Chow Kum, Joe Sing, a sporty gent, who described himself as ‘Skinners Cook”, Matthew Tom Chong, Arthur Lee, Willie Choy, Charles Wong, Ah See (or ah me), See Squeek (or something like that), and Charles Quay.
8Mar16: White Grown Bananas. Article
18Mar16: Yamada donates to Wounded Soldiers Fund Murbah (Could be Suyekichi Yamada, b. Shimomashki, Japan, landed 1904 and spent many years wandering around the district. He surfaced at Tweed Heads in 1947 after keeping a very low profile during the war, if not interned.)
14 and 19Jul16: Chinese and the Banana Industry. 15 Chinamen arrive
Byron Bay for Mullum. …What’s all the fuss – over 200 in Warwick district.
21Jul16: Black and White: South Sea Island team from ‘the Caves’ challenges Murbah white team but only 7 whites turn up.
22Jun16: Mr J.R. Gaggin pays £80/acre banana farm Chinderah (bought 20yrs ago for 10/- per acre)
14/19Jul
16: 15 Chinamen arrive Byron Bay and escorted to Mullum.
21Jul16: James Kenny refuses £100/acre Murbah
4Nov16:
Tweed Shire valuations up due banana industry. Banana and Dairy land valued at £11/acre and Cane land at £10/10/-

3Feb21: George Lau On Lee herbalist also visits Tenterfield.
15Aug21: Chinese Agents. Banana Growers Angry. Call to Arms. Chinese Monopoly.
1922: James Fong born Murbah, enlisted WW2 in Brisbane.
22Dec22: Sue Chong and Fong Lee unregistered dogs.
22Dec23: Tweed Shire valuations
23Jan24: J.R.H. Gaggin 49 lot subdivision Cudgen Hedland
31Mar24: Empire Café 1/6d each meal or 3/6d by the day.
1Sep24: Hong Sam Lee died aged 64
13Jun25: Opium raid North Lismore. Sun Lee, Ah Chong, Willi Bew
2Nov25: Empire Café, Main St opposite PO. Meals for office and working people + W. Choy, Empire Café, Fried Fish speciality. 1/6d each meal or 3/6d by the day. (Mauve Cafe run by Stella Smith also opposite PO.)
3Nov25: Japanese Laundry,
Stuart St, Tweed Heads. H. Takaki, next to Star Office
1Feb26: H. Takaki, Japanese Laundry Stuart St Tweed Heads.
14Sep26: Yee Wah Hong, Chinese herbalist opposite Railway Station, Sth Murbah.
24Dec26: Mrs Annie Barns takes over Empire Café from Willie Choy. Hot meals from 7am to 11pm.
14Jul28: Willie Choy of the Central Café. Takeaway meals

7May30: Chinaman’s mysterious death Byron Bay.
19Jul30: Yee Hop market gardener of Tweed Heads.
3Aug31: 1st class Chinese chef seeks engagement Murbah.
9Dec31: George Chew, Chinese cook at Beach House Tweed Heads, busted for possession of opium.
22Apr32: BGF has 9 approved agents, at least 3 Chinese.
31Mar34: Yee Hop, banana grower of Barneys Point, Tweed Heads, fined for bunchy top.
22Sep34: For committing a nuisance in a fruit and vegie cart… Joung Ching…an elderly Chinaman of
Byron Bay….
23Aug35: Tong’s store is principal shop in new Austral building Murbah.
7Jul37: Mrs Fujimoto (age 35) resident Tweed St, Tweed Heads.
 

2Feb40: Wing San, Banana agent Sydney markets
8Feb40: E. Lee Fook & Co, Banana agent Sydney
6Nov40: Wing Yuen Lee donates to Murbah Poppy Day appeal.
7Aug41: Harry Yee, 60yrs old, manager of Harry Yee & Co, general store Ballina, died car accident. Passengers Charles See and Iris See of Vaucluse passengers. Visiting Robert Kong of Stanthorpe. Established Ballina 2/3 yrs
6Sep40: Wing San & Co denote trophy to Banana section Mullum Show
27Sep41: Charlie Sim Lee, Chinese cook of Coolangatta, charged for changing residence without permission.
30Oct41: Wing Yuen Lee donates to Poppy Day Appeal Murbah.
8Dec41: Mr Willy Choy, well known former resident, had all-cedar house in King St., Murbah. Being demolished.

28Jan42: Doreen M. Tong gains Intermediate Murbah.
22Mar44: Govt brings 500 Chinese from Nauru to work wolfram mines at start of war.
16Oct45: Mullum RSL. Ernie Neath …ban trade with Japan for 50 years.
29Oct45: Twin Towns RSL. 20yr ban on trade with Japan
18May46: Wing Yuen Lee assaulted Murbah.
20Oct48:
Stanley Tong aged 12 starts school Murbah, but unable to speak English. Nephew of Mr T. Tong of Murbah who has been Aust 27yrs. Brought Stan back after 8mths holiday Hong Kong
8Jan49: Olga Tong, dau of Mr and Mrs T. Tong of Murbah, engaged to Ken Loch Lee of Sydney.
29Jan49: I believe in a white
Australia, says Mr Anthony MHR.
14Mar49: No compromise on White
Australia – RSL Chief.
27Apr49: Thelma Tong of Murbah marries Edward Mee Lee.
20Apr50: Miss Olga Tong dau of Mr and Mrs Tong of Commercial Rd Murbah marries Ken Loch Lee of Beverly Hills Sydney. May and Rita Tong bridesmaids. Terrence Wong Yee of
Sydney page boy. 175 guests.

24Feb58: Wing Yuen Lee died Murbah, aged 83, leaving a daughter, Mrs Lee Gumm Soo, in Hong Kong.  He came to Australia in 1898 and was a Herbalist Murbah since early 1930s. His 22yr old grandson, Roger Yuen Wha Hee, who came on his own to Murbah in 1948, was living with him at the time of his death at his house on the corner of Bray and Alma Streets in South Murbah. Executor of his estate was the Murbah identity Thomas Tong See.  (Tong’s Store operating in Mullum through the 1930s and 40s was likely to be a branch of the Murbah family holdings.)
21Apr58: White Australia Policy unchristian
1May58: RSL uncompromising Asian migrants.
20Jun58: Photo of Mr and Mrs Derek Sue. Married Randwick. Mrs Sue = youngest dau of Mr and Mrs T. Tong of Commercial Rd. 

2Nov20. Richmond Herald – Coraki. Sam Sing sells fruit and green grocery business at Coraki to Wong Tow.

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Random Lismore Chronicle:
10Apr03: On Lee, market gardener Nth Lis 16yrs
29Jan04: Bing Lee – market gardener Nth Lismore. Stolen melons.
22Jul04: Charlie Kong, an eccentric looking native of the
Flower Land,… market gardener of South Lismore…beat a cow for eating his veggies. Calves had been wandering into his vegie patch for sometime and he had made many complaints. Tennant on Mr Jurd’s dairy farm property. Been there 2yrs ‘hard working and industrious’. Jurd had 91acres leased from Mr Lodge for £32/yr. Rented 6acres to Kong for £16 per year. Two other chinamen also sub-rented 6acres for £16. L. Sam, after blowing out a match, the usual method employed in swearing the Heathern worshippers of Joss, stated… Sam was evidently satisfied with his contributions to the elucudation of the great poddy tragedy and descended from the box in smiles.
30Sep04: H. Jurd v. Charlie Kong. Jurd tried to eject him. Had verbal lease of 5yrs with 18mths to go. Verdivt to Jurd and Charlie to decamp by 6 Oct.
11Oct04: Chinese Sugar Growers.
28Oct04: Anti Chinese League – Segregation of Aliens – half caste Chinese
8Nov04: Herbert Jurd v. Charlie Kong
23Dec04: Maclean. Jimmy the Chinaman. Frank Tanna, Kanaka owned the land on which 3 kanakas built boarding house. Jane Davis, ‘Jinny’, living with Tanna for 2.5yrs. Known him for 16yrs. Tommy Abrahms

27Jun05: Foon Young v. A. Khan. Small Debts Court.
Article The Yellow Races and The White and The Yellow Peril Regarded as ‘Bosh’. Both favourable.
11Jul05: Maclean Poisoning Case. Jane Davis, a little old-fashioned looking woman, of middle age…. Sentenced to death.
18Jul05: One disclosure in connection with the poisoning case at Maclean is not at all pleasant news to the residents of that pretty little little town; but, at the same time, it tends to show that people cannot be too careful in dealing with the detestable and dirty blacks who are swarming our coast. Just imagine a frail, little, old woman is indicted for attempting to poison a Kanaka, and after she is convicted it is discovered that the man she desired not is a leper, as also is another witness in the case, both of whom were dispatched to the lazarette, where they will end their days sooner or later – sooner for choice…. It was stated that the condemned woman is a victim to paralysis, but the probabilities are that she is sharing the same foul abomination as he whose dispatch she would hasten.
Such direful developments as referred to in the preceding Note should serve as a warning to the many wealthy farmers – and others, too – in this district who are prone to hug and worship the blackman in preference to one of their own color. Think of these degraded aliens – who are subject to the worse forms of disease – working on dairies and farms and sleeping huddled together like so many fleas in filthy rooms, to which their master’s children probably have access……. Goodness knows, some of the whites are bad enough in their habits, but to discover a clean living alien is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.
28Jul05: A Rational White Australia. Favourable.
11Aug05: Foon Yung donates to
Lismore Hospital.
The Chinaman in Australia. Favourable.
15Aug05: Leprosy inquiry to extend to Hindoos. 

5Jan06: William Holsten proceeded against by See Sin for obstruction. Both driving horse and carts and Horsten trying to cut him off.
13Mar06: Ah Wong donates melons to hospital.
8Jun06: Ah Chee working horse with lame leg.
11Sep06: The Gentle Chinkie again.
1Feb 07: Ah Chie and Hing Kee unregistered dogs.
19Mar07: Tommy Mori, Japanese, carrying firearm. Tommy Ah Lee stolen property.
14May07: Hooray for a White
Australia! Shriek for a White Australia! Vote for a White Australia! And when you have done that, do you think you have fulfilled all the requirements of a White Australia ideal? If you think so, you are wrong. You must do more. You must live up to your principles, and give the coloured races a wide berth. In this town there are many deserving women only too glad to get jobs of washing and ironing, to keep themselves and families in food and clothes, and to them it would be expected that laundry work would be given. But it is not. It goes to Japs. Think of it! Our own race allowed to battle for a crust, and no work given. A Jap laundry rushed with orders! And worst feature of all is that the greatest supporters of these Jap laundries are working men – the very persons whose occupations are the first affected by colored labor. Mean whites are not confined to the degraded class who consort with colored people, but comprise those who deal with them and patronise them.
2Jul07 Inscrutable letter by Ping Pong. 5Jul Ping Pong.
20Sep 07: Oriental laundry Dawson St T. Okamura.

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Random Northern Star
11Dec1880: Hither They Come: After being left to ourselves for many years past, the children of the moon, in the shape of the heathen Chinese, have at length discovered that the Richmond district is not a sort of bad place for living in, and in Lismore in particular, with smiles childlike and bland, they can be now seen daily tempting housekeepers with their ‘wery good cabbages’ and other vegetables, which they hawk round in every direction, travelling with their bamboo baskets for miles, up and downhill over our wretched roads….. and seeing that we have hitherto been so badly supplied with green food, their advent may not be considered an unmitigated evil. It is astonishing what these people can get out of the land, by careful cultivation, especially in a fertile district like this, where we are sorry to say the white man has hitherto grown but little, especially in the shape of vegetables or fruit. We notice that many of the so-called Chinese are really Japanese, who speak good English, and are the smartest of their race in whatever position of life they may be placed; and while we should not like to see too many of them came here, believe, that as adding to our food resources, that they will prove a benefit in some instances, while, we know the ladies look upon them with favour, as changing the perpetual beef and potatoes to which we have hitherto been accustomed. The only fear, however, is, that seeing the goodness of the land, our Johns will come here ‘too muchee.’
3Nov1886: Ah Cong Cowop arrives Lismore
30Nov1887: Ah Chong departs Lismore
3Oct1891: Jimmy Ah Sue, stealing
16Dec1891: Foon Yung
6Jan1892: Jimmy Ah Sue opens general store
3Dec1892: Yan Hing Fancy goods store Nth Lis. Dr Hong Sing in Fong Yung’s store
7Jan1893: Foon Yung. Chinese General Store Nth Lis. Hong Sing Chinese Doctor can be consulted at Foon Yung shop. For many years practicing in Grafton has now taken up residence in Lismore.
1Apr1893: Sing Ah, Un Show, Chow Hong, Bin Gee George, Hing Jack, Hing Ah, gambling North Lismore.
8Apr1893: Hong Sing Gaming House. Jimy King Long interpreter. Premises of
Yan Hing cnr Bridge and Terania Nth Lis. George Bung Gee
24Feb1894: Ah Hay, a chinaman, assault Casino, Jessie King, aged 16, residing with father, a chinaman named Stephen King, cook of Jordan’s Hotel. Ah Chee interpreter. 4yrs hard labour Grafton.
Foon Yung v. Lee Sow. Debt of £77/13/7
Foon Yung v. Harry Ah Bung. Debt of £12/14/10. T. Ah Chee interpreter both cases.
28Feb94: Heerainulaa v. F. McQuilty. Debt

11Apr94: Aborigines refused treatment Casino Hospital
16May94: History Lismore. (and 16May1893)
9Jun94: Lee Low, a
Chinaman, assaults Gun Ling, market gardeners
11Jul94: Election. Mr Ewing anti alien.
4Aug94: Willie Ah Tung, robbery with violence. 4
Chinamen in court. George Bew, cook Ryan’s Hotel, cousin of Chin Bak, a cook. Ah Hing’s store where a lot of Chinese gather. Ah Ti witness.
11Aug94: W. Ah Tong v. George Bew
1Sep94: George Gon, cook Gollan’s Hotel
29Sep94: J. C. McIntosh v. J. Ah Sue
Harry Ah Bung bankrupt. Creditor Foon Yung. Lee Too bankrupt gardener.
10Oct94: Strange Accident to a Chinaman. See Chun, orchardist of Dundas
20Oct94: Influx of Alien Races. Mr Waddell in Parliament
27Oct94: Lee Young v. Sow Ou. Small debt
17Jul95: Ah Moy assaulted North Lismore.

12Oct1901: How Chinamen evade the poll tax. The Kanaka Bill
19Oct1901: The Imperialist Letter. Pacific Islanders Labourers Bill
23Oct1901: Another Maggie Sullivan Column. Lismore journalist
26Oct1901: L to E by Imperialist again
11Apr03: On Lee v. H. Knight over stone throwing. Foon Young, Ah Fat.
6May03: Thomas Ah Funn and Thomas Murra larceny
13Jun03: Sammie Yaim donates 2 guineas to hospital
25Jul03: Samey Ah Yan donates 2 guineas to Hospital
4Nov03: G. Mot Get, c/- On Lee (cabinet maker Nth Lis). Chinese cook, 6yrs experience. References.
4Dec07: R.Brewster Steam Laundry Sth Lis. Support the man you know.
9Mar08: Finalizing white grown sugar.
18Mar08: Carruthers resigning.
16Apr08: The Cunning Celesial. Foon Yung (plaintiff had been store keeper Lismore 24yrs) v. Al Quay (last dealt with Yung in 1895). Jessie Yung, wife of Foon.
25Apr08: WR and Albert Baker, real estate agents for 40 allotments at New Brighten.
6Jul08: Disturbance at
South Lismore. Some Japaneses occupy a building near Coleman’s bridge on South Lismore side, and a number of youths and a few of the female sex were responsible for disturbing the inmates. A Japanese beat the crap out of one.
1Aug08: Keep out the undesirables. Chinese Commissioners speech
18Aug08: John Walsh pays counterfeit coin to Ah Kum Mullum. Assistant in Sam Sing’s fruit and veggie shop.
16Sep08: Letter to Ed. I noticed in your journal this morning a reference to an assumed case of leprosy which was supposed to have occurred at my laundry. Now, Sir, your informant or your reporter is very far wide of the mark, and as publication of the article is likely to do me a great deal of harm, and, perhaps, ruin my business, I hope you will condescend to publish the true facts of the matter. A countryman of mine, an employee, had occasion to visit
Brisbane, and there contracted a disease of a private nature. Upon his return to Lismore he was attended by Dr Service, and that gentleman treated him until his departure from Lismore. …. I made arrangements to have my countryman conveyed to Sydney. The police have visited my laundry and found everything clean and satisfactory. Now, sir, I ask you, in common justice, to publish this letter in order to allay public uneasiness and remove a stigma that has been placed on my business….. C. Murai, Tokio Laundry, South Lismore. (This letter, publishing some particulars lacking in the paragraph it refers to, is given without comment – Editor ‘Star”)
19Sep08: That Diseased laundryman. It was with feelings of alarm that I read…Concerned resident also writes L to E. 

14Oct08: The White Atherton League formed….it was resolved that farmers pledge themselves not to renew leases to Chinese tenants…. And substitute cows for chows
 
21Oct08: White Australia. Meeting at Atherton. 500 attended.
 7Nov08: The White Atherton League write to Northern Star asking for support in collecting for names and subscriptions on behalf of the league
 9Nov08: The White Atherton League. Chinese evicted from farms. Torch light procession. Movement beyond control threatens to destroy Chinatown within 24hrs so far Chinese evicted from farms and 18 houses burnt.
 14Nov08: Fake news Atherton.

20Jan09: Willie Ah Noon donates to hospital.
21Jan09: Ah Chee, cabinet maker, Lismore resident 5yrs, found guilty of running an opium den from his house in Terania St Nth Lismore. Took over shop from On Lee. Tommy Long, Tommy Lee, George Mong and Ah Wing found smoking. George Mong was a cook at Hotel Metropole.
15Mar09: Oriental Litigants. Oriental litigants, remarked his honour, at the Sessions, are entirely different from us. While in our idea a law suit is something to be fought out by every fair means possible to them, it means far more. They import into it a degree of vehemence which we never reach, and fight with an intense thirst for victory which leads them to do many things that Australians would never dream of.
24Jun09: Lee Sow and Willie Ah Ho. Opium. Willie owned house Bridge St. Lee rented from Mong Hook.
9Dec09: An Obstreperous Chinaman. Willie Ah How refused to give up land (market garden) to Bookan Singh.
10Feb10: Mori Yamma, uncontrollable horse.
24Feb10: Charlie Singh, gardener of Nth Lis, building house without approval of council.(3Mar10: Charles Sing, Chinaman, building case.)
10Mar10: George Wuno, Japanese cook of Casino.
30Mar10: Oriental Laundry Keen St
opp Marcus Clarks, estb 3yrs.
16May10: Mason and Hague. There are now nearly 2000 Japanese laundries in Australia.
27Jun10: Shocking Tragedy. Double Murder and suicide. Japanese Mory Mase (aka Oz Mosi Mori) employee of Mrs Frahan’s Federal Laundry Keen St, shoots her and Chinaman Jack Day Ying, cook Freemason’s hotel. Japanese Jack Kawai witness. Some years ago Yun Hing buried old cemetery but body exhumed and sent China. Rellies want same grave. Charlie Sing = brother-in-law. Others Willie Kitt, Lew Bow, George Long. 30 Chinese (mostly local storekeepers and gardeners) mourners.
17Sep10: Yamato Laundry Keen St opp public school. C. Mauri proprietor, late of Tokio Laundry Sth Lis.
18Oct10: Yokita and Murai, Japanese, Wares Laundry Sth Lis. Emma Ray of Yamato Laundry Keen St. Assaulted in On Lee’s store Nth Lis.
2Nov10: Sid Long, Charlie Ah Gee, Chinese, fined for not having names printed on carts.
30Dec10: Harry Sue, a Chinaman, bad language

4Apr11: Davy Ditta (Sikh) sued George Bookan Singh (Sikh) for assault. Nawab Khan (Mohometan), Arre Singi and Lee Loys (Chinese) witnesses.
20May11: The Yellow Peril.
23May11: The Heathern Chinese
1Jun11: The Yellow Peril.
19Aug11: Chinese Marriage.
21Aug11: Chinese and Fictitious Gold.
23Aug11: The Rivalry of the East. Yellow Peril
13Mar12: Harry Fukumaga, Japanese, assaulted Byron Bay. Employed Great Northern Hotel? Laundryman. 6wks Byron, 10yrs Aust
13Jul12: W. On Lee of Nth Lismore collects £6/6/- from Lismore Chinese residents for donation to Hospital.
28Nov12: Foon/Poon Hop, fruiterer + Sammy + Sam Mee. Opium den Casino.
24Dec12: Aborigine influx Lismore

18Jan13: Lee Long dies Nth Lismore. The Master of Chinese Freemasonry in Lismore. (Lee Loy died 1913 aged 53.)
21Jan13: George Kanai, Japanese, drunk
21Jan13: Samuel Lippy steals duck from Tommy Lee, cook and market gardener. Arthur Chong, boarder with Lee.
29Jan13: Tommy Lee, Chinaman, cook and gardener had ducks stolen. Arthur Chong, cook, living with Lee. ‘What for you steal my ducks?’ ‘What do I care for a Chinese ------ like you.’
4Feb13: Opium Traffic Editorial
18Mar13: Ah Kuen, opium Nth Lis
11Apr13: Archie Rowles, Cingalese. Joe Aboo. Jack Saddick, Algerian. + 12Apr13.
6May13: Mrs Hop Poon Gooey. At the Tintenbar Shire Council meeting yesterday, on the receipt of a circular re the Hop Poon Gooey case, sent out by order of a public meeting at Cooma, asking the Council to cooperate in a request to the Commonwealth Parliament that the law be amended in such a way as to allow naturalized British subjects to have their wives in Australia. Cr Whipps moved that cooperation be granted. It was a diabolical piece of business on the part of the Government.
Cr Lumley said that Mrs Gooey had agreed to come out on the understanding that she was to go back, and she had had notice to quit. If he went to China he would have to obey the laws there, and Mrs Hop Poon Gooey should be prepared to do the same here.
The President pointed out that the motion was a request that the law be amended.
Cr Whipps said that it was a mistake not to let aliens have wives of their own nationality, as they then took up with white girls. Mixed breeding caused a lot of trouble
…..
15Aug13: Tommy Lang, Chinese cook McQuades Hotel assaulted.
30Sep13: Paul Singh assaulted by George Ajuita (Japanese laundryman of McGrath’s Hotel.
2Oct13: George Ajuta v. George Hunai (employer of Ajuta at Laundry.) Blame for damaged clothes.
10Oct13: Joseph Zeen, a Sydney native of coloured extraction. Assault Tygalgah
13Nov13: Che Ping, market gardener Boorie Creek, Blakebrook Rd, shot. Of quiet disposition and been Aust ‘number of years’. Brought to town by 2 Chinamen. 2 shots.
2Dec13: Ah Ping shooting case
15Dec13: A Benevolent Chinaman. On a hot scorching day, Charlie Ah Ching, the local Vegetable Johnny, prompted no doubt by his benevolent joss, turned up at the school with his horse and cart load of water melons for free distribution. This example of public spirit on the part of the much despised alien is one that a good many members of the superior civilization might well take heart. (Bangalow?) He was at Coraki 1916.

11Dec14: Good Chinese cook seeks position. Frank Tiy c/- Sun Lew, Peat St Nth Lis
8Jan15: Japanese wants position Lismore. First Class Cook. Yamato Laundry Keen St wants washerwoman
29May15: Chinese Herbalist. George G. Young settles Bangalow
10Aug15: Jack Apr, Kanaka of Chindera. Charged with killing cow.
5Oct15: Jimale Nutta Singh, residing in a tent Nth Lis, charged George Booker Singh with assault. Charlie Mong, Chinaman, witness
3Jan16: George Dow moved herbalist business to new shop Magellan St. Partner returned to China. George Sun has sent me plenty of new herbs. At Bangalow every Mom, Tue and Wed.
21Jan16: Leun Hing Low’s Chinese Cook Shop Campbell St Sydney trashed by rioting soldiers.
23Jun16: £80/acre for banana land Chindera
21Jul16: 5 Kanakas of Billinudgel enlisted Byron Bay
25Jul16: L to E. I notice an announcement in your columns that a Celestial at the
Tweed who took up some land has imported 15 of his countrymen to work a banana farm….. Unfair competition due low wages. Several Chinese plantations already on Tweed.
26Jul16: J. Nutta Singh v. M. Wah. Small Debts court
5Aug16: Young lad Byron harassing ‘Johns’ with pee rifle. 

30Apr17: Chinamen and the Banana Growers. Chinese offer £18 per acre rent for 10yr lease Tweed
18May17: An Appeal to Chinamen. Letter from Sydney Chinese to purchase a peg leg for Charlie Mong late of Lismore. Aka Wong Mong, gardner
13Jul17: Willie Yung Lee, herbalist of Byron Bay, wants housekeeper.
6Oct17: Lucy Lamos. Murder Chindera. Charlie Ambong, Christine Apoo
13Oct17: Willie Young Lee. Chinese Herbalist of Casino and Byron Bay. Maybe same prewar Willie Young. (Note Willie Young at Tweed Heads late 1916.)
6Nov17: Joe Sing, chinaman, prosecuted for not notifying change of address
10Nov17. Record Flood. One chinaman and 2 Solomon Islanders stranded Nth Lis
10Nov17: Harry Hayasha of Keen St donates £5 to appeal for homeless. + G. Kanai of Keen
30Nov17: Chineses cook wants position. F. Tiy c/-
Sun Lee Peat St Nth Lis
15Dec17: P.G. See & Tong. Oriental Herbalists opening Monday Dawson St near Uralba St. Tong could be later of eminent Tong Stores Murbah.

21Feb18: Japanese chef seeks employment
12Mar18: Charlie Poon and Jimmy Kee unregistered aliens
29Jun18: Chinese cook wants position in hotel. Tommy Gunn c/- Mrs E. Long Terania St
16Aug18: Charlie Hey market gardener of Horseshoe Lagoon assaulted Tommy Long. 2 interpreters. Jimmy Shon mentioned
18Sep18: Elizabeth Long, fruiterer Nth Lis sued by Anthony Coory labourer
23Sep18: Laundry of
George Ajuta Keen St
16Oct18: Chinese at the Cemetery. Sunday last was ‘John Chinaman’s’ day for paying homage to his dead, and this was done in a manner to the Mongolian mind most thorough and reverent. In Lismore there is but a very small Chinese population, probably not above thirty people, though in former years the numbers were greater. In the
North Lismore cemetery there have been only some half dozen internments, whilst the mortal remains of several of the departed have in later years been disinterred and sent to the flowery land. In the new cemetery only one burial has been made, that of the victim of the Keen Street tragedy of several years ago. About noon on Sunday some 15 Celestials proceeded in Mr Timberlake’s motor to the North Lismore cemetery….

10Mar19: Black Bananas. Referring to letter by Fair Dinkum. . … In a forcible setting he puts forward his case: - ‘A great many returned soldiers have taken to growing bananas as a means of earning a livelihood, and have gone to a big expense in purchasing and clearing… Our Government are now taking the bread and butter out of their mouths by allowing black bananas… Thus our boys who have fought for Australia, or who have offered to fight, are compelled to accept a few shillings per acre for their bananas…. We have fought to keep Australia free, to keep the niggers and their plantations free, and now they are allowed to starve us out of our own country. These blacks live on next to nothing and get 18s a case for their bananas, while we here in Australia are to be satisfied with 5s. … ‘Fair Dinkum re-echoes the anomaly pointed out in these columns a few issues back of keeping the colored alien away from our shores, and bringing us up against his labor…. Of course it is preposterous to think we are forever going to provide a commercial cushion for Fiji… Consider the consumers position though… He likes his Fiji article as against local products, and he squares his conscience for his disloyal taste by telling himself Fifians – perhaps the growers of the very bananas – also fought for the Empire. Unsound as against our own soldiers of course, but there it is. …
15Apr19: Charles Duck Poy unreg alien Bangalow
25Apr19: Oriental Shops. Dominating America.
5Jun19: Ah Chuey of Junee wealthiest Chinese Aust
13Jun19: Lee Hin runs amok Sydney
25Jun19: Chinese cook wants position. Tommy Guna c/- Sun Lee Nth Lis. Jimmy Nye, Chinese vegetable vendor gets flu. On door to door selling, collapsed Parks St Girades Hill
23Aug19: George Sun starting herbalist business Bangalow. Having just returned from China I am again starting….
23Aug19: George Sing Lee attempted murder of Charles Eden Tweed Heads
24Sep19: Chinese and Banana Industry
3Oct19: Charlie Poon cook at hotel Sth Murbah assaults proprietor Fitzwilliam Wulff
15Oct19: Gum Chew failure to pay sanitary fees Nth Lismore
17Oct19: Chinese Banana Growers
21Oct19: Wong Yuen. Chinese Herbalist
96 Keen St. (Later Japanese café.)
31Oct19: Chinese as Cultivators. Nobody wants the Chinese here in swarms and numbers, even if only their ways are not our ways. But there is just a likelihood of the general public attaching too much importance to the so-termed invasion of Chinese in our banana growing districts, regarding which the opportunity has been seized by Captain Carmichael to show how badly our Austral world has got off the proper track for lack of the leadership which from his point of view, has become so necessary. Of course to the white grower who has the Celestial alongside of him, getting a better result than the Britisher can, undue importance is impossible…. With ‘John’ out of the competition the white man and his friends can assist the market to rise and get better returns for their wares. Were the positions of the competitors reversed and ‘John’ not top dog in the balance–sheet, he would be allowed, as he is in other works, to pursue the even tenor of his way without attention being called to the racial risks attendant on his presence amongst us; and it is this fact which makes the Federal authorities recognise in most anti-agitations a rift in the lute. … How often do we find that ‘John’ the prospector has made ‘a fist of it’ in claims deserted by white miners as having ‘petered out’; that ‘John’ the gardener has grown splendid vegetables on ground we have despised as barren and worthless, incapable of fruitifying; And there is every likelihood of the same experience maturing in the banana areas of Australia. There is, however, this fact to bear in mind – that the Chinese by and large are amongst us legally. They, as a whole, have been taxed heavily for their right to enter upon Australian soil, and consequently they are entitled to and can claim through their Government all the protection and benefits of our laws. The question then of the removal of their activities from banana growing bristles with difficulties. … We cannot take money from another nation’s subjects for a right to enter our boundaries and then debar those persons from entering upon a legitimate occupation in a legitimate occupation in a legitimate, even if disagreeable, way. But surely it is worth while considering how the Chinese have acquired land for banana growing. Is it not because some of ourselves, ignoring all other features attaching to Chinese residence, have been tempted by long prices in the past? They may succumb to Chinese dollars again in the future. Here is a direction in which preventative means can be taken, if, patriotically closing our ear to the voice of gold, we band together and rendered further invasion of these districts impossible by refusing to sell land…. A good deal of what has been reported to the
Sydney press may be looked upon as hot air. Chinese merchants do not sink large sums in ventures away from their immediate control after the wont of the ‘get rich quick’ Caucasian. It is against their natures…. As they did at Mullumbimby some years ago, making no secret of their action at the time, they open out on a modest scale leaving the venture to grow on its merits….

13Jan20: George Lau On Lee, herbalist, nephew of late Dr George On Lee of Sydney. Operating all over the place from base Sydney. Almost weekly trip to North Coast. Probably returned replenish Sydney then straight back.
21Oct22: George Young Fong, Chinese Herbalist, c/- Mrs Long’s boarding house Nth Lis.
20Feb23: Sam War, Chinese market gardener Nth Lismore.
11Apr23: Joe Young, Chinaman Sth Lismore.
10May23: Net Wah, market gardener Nth Lismore
4Aug23: H. Suzuki, Japanese café
96 Keen St.
12Jun25: The Opium Raid.
Sun Lee  Peate St Nth Lis. Ah Chong and Willie Bew.
20Jun25: Opium. Loo Soon of Newrybar. George Tim.
6Oct25: Opium Den Raid Nth Lis. Pay Yen’s house. Willie Yook.
29Feb26: Farm Produce Bill. Legislative Assembly debate ‘deletion of clause prohibiting aliens who were not in business at the commencement of the Act carrying on business as produce merchants in NSW.’ But reinstated by Legislative Council. Allegedly a lot of aliens have gone into the markets recently and ‘virtually captured the trade.’ Maybe Chinese?
20Mar26: Carl Yung ordered off picnic ground Byron Bay.
8May26: L.J.C. Yung formerly of Lismore writes of trip to Orient.

23Jun26: Kyogle history article. Advert for Japanese laundry of G. Fugesuyi in Lakin’s building Geneva St.
24Jun26: White Australia.
28Jul26: White Australia. Japanese irritated.
30Sep26: Suicide of Japanese laundryman Kyogle. C. Fuji Suye shot himself. Started business Kyogle early this year.
16Nov26: Tommy Funn drunk
23Nov26: White Australia. Prohibited immigrants. Case of Ah On
Perth.

20Jan27: Editorial The Chinese Situation.
19Mar27: M.W. Lee, Chinese Herbalist,
Magellan St. Late of Toowoomba and Hong Kong.
30Apr27: White Australia. Chinese. Byron Bay letter.
14May27:
A Warning to Australia. Editorial. White Australia. Asiatic Menace.
18May27: George Sun, Chinese Herbalist, opens (reopens?) shop Campbell St Bangalow. Just returned from China.
2Jul27: The
Far East. Lismore men abroad. Luther J. Yung.
8Jul27: A White Australia. Editorial. The Bishop of
London, giving his impressions of his recent tour through the Dominions, said that a White Australia was not so much a policy in the Commonwealth as a passion…. His epigrammatic declaration possibly explains the reason why the White Australia policy is accepted by every section of the community…. The evil effects of the country being overrun by hords of Asians of the coolie type were very patent in the early days of settlement in Australia… Their colonies became centres from which social degeneration spread like a plague…. The economic effect of alien competition in industry was only one phase of the question, and while it contributed something to the final decision it was really the danger to the social life of the community which was mainly responsible for the restrictions imposed on immigration from Eastern countries….
While the White Australia policy was at first directed against Asiatics it has of late years begun to take on a wider significance. Immigration from some of the European countries which have not attained a high standard is developing at a rate which is causing some anxiety, and there can be little doubt that the time is rapidly approaching when the problem which this represents will have to be given serious consideration. The objection is not to immigrants of other nationalities of the right type making homes in Australia. Examples can easily be found of men and women of other blood than our own who have made admirable settlers and whose descendants have become as good Australians as those who sprang from British stock. The true test of the suitability of other races to be accepted as immigrants is the extent to which they can assimilate with the existing population. …. It is the foreign immigrant incapable of absorption on account of his lower ideals of life who threatens the social fabric by his insularity engendering similar evils to those which followed the influx od Asiatics and led to restrictions being placed on their admission to the country. This is the phase of alien immigration which goes beyond the White Australia policy because the question of colour is not involved. Hence the feeling that it is necessary to keep Australia something more than white and the aspiration occasionally voiced that the slogan should rather be a British Australia, with the modification that immigration should be restricted to races which will mix freely with our own and tend to strengthen it. There can be no doubt that the alien immigrants who are now coming into the country in increasing numbers do not even represent the best of their races. The social conditions under which they and their ancestors have lived for generations have created a gap between them and Australian ideals which cannot be readily bridged. While the economic effect of this new type of immigration is not without its serious side the important issue is the influence it will exert on the race. The desirability of a constant flow of immigrants to Australia is recognised generally, but in a question of this nature the preservation of British ideals is a point which cannot be neglected without opening the way to serious consequences in the future.

9Jul27: 500 Chinese Coolies Townsville. Forced labour.
2Aug/2Sep27: Knowg Sing Wah Troupe entertain at Star Court. Plus Miss Amy Quon.
26Jan28: Ellen Sing graduates with LC Lismore.
24Apr28: Gambling raid, 2 storey house Peat St, Nth Lismore. Yee Wah, Wong Foy. Several other countrymen + a Hindu. Also a boarding house and hospital - ‘some of the Chinese were old and decrepit’.
19Sep28: Small Debts Court. 3 Hindoos, a chinaman and an Italian. Boola Singh v. Tommy Yong/Young  Both market gardeners Leycester Creek.
13Nov29: Lee Boo, chinese, theft.
9Dec29: Willi Young car crash Grafton
17Dec29: Chinese cook wants position. W. Yook, Sth Murbah.
14Nov29: Segregation of coloured children Tweed Heads

7Jan30: Charlie Ah Ching, market gardener North Lismore. Employs George Watego as share farmer for a couple of weeks. Watego, next door neighbour Terania St and a waterside worker unemployed for last 12mths.
4Feb30: Charlie Ah Ching robbed. + Lee Boo.
3May30: Yamato Laundry Keen St.
6May30: George Sue and George Sun, herbalists Campbell St Bangalow
12May30: Charlie Chong, hotel cook, dies Byron Bay. (Died Jan30 aged 62?)
24May30: George Sue, aka Sue Sing Lee and J. Sue Lee, charged with larceny Bangalow. Accused of appropriating estate of Charlie Chong. Hop Lee and Que Lee mentioned.
27May30: George Chew, kitchen hand Great Northern Hotel Byron, sacked and not paid wages, overtime and holiday pay.
18Jun30: Chinese Funerals Lismore.
19Jun30: Funeral of Lowe Chouie, aged 52, Chinaman of Byron Bay, formerly market gardener of Coffee Camp. Buried Lismore. 'A number of his countrymen' present.
25Jun30: George Sue not guilty re Chong's death. Sue was treating him with herbs.
29Jul30: Hop Lee, market gardener, Molesworth St, North Lismore. Opium. Age 75 and 45 yrs in Aust.
26Aug30: Visit of Mr J. Iwasaki, from Japanese Dept of Commerce and Industry
11Sep30: Civic reception for Mr Iwasaki, who advised that one thing that had struck him during his short experience of the Northern Rivers district was that the trade depression was less noticeable here than in other parts of the State.
10Oct30: George Sun, 23yrs Herbalist Bangalow, now commenced business 27 Zadoc St Lismore (house owned by Athena Andrulakis) after return from holiday China.
2Dec30: Foon Yung dies China. Came Richmond River 1878 or earlier and established store Terania St Nth Lis. Often interpreter police court. Returned China ~1908 and involved politics. South China Herald of August last:- On August 21 in Canton the National flag of the Kuo-min-tang was flown at half mast mourning the loss of one of New China's greatest patriots, Mr Foon Yung. He lived to the wonderful age of 91 years and to his last moments had all his faculties. Just prior to his death he quoted the famous speech of Hye-Ko.... A widow and adult family (the latter educated at Lismore High School), who are now in the East, survive. (Daughter Lavina dead?)
10Jan31: George Sue's business destroyed fire Bangalow, along with 5 other shops and a garage. £30,000 damage from fires Bangalow in last 15mths
15Mar31: George Sue, late of Bangalow, has reopened herbalist business Centre Street, Casino.
2May31: Willi Young arraigned on charge of being a prohibited immigrant after car accident Grafton. Minister for Immigration decides not to deport him. Formerly a herbalist now a market gardener 'on an extensive scale.'
6May31: Alan Chong, son of Charlie who died Byron 1930, given into care of Mrs Elizabeth Long , store keeper of South Lismore, by Charlie 9yrs ago. She wants assistance from Public Trustee. (Mrs Long died 1956 aged 93 Lismore)
16May31: George Sue of South Casino now operating from premises of Charlie See Tong in Hickey Street.
29Jun31: George Chow Yow and Wah Lee, market gardeners Coolangatta. Opium.
13Jul31: Tom Lee, Chinese market gardener of Pitt Lane Nth Lis, assaulted and taken to hospital.
25Jul31: Tommy Young, Chinese Herbalist, Byron Bay, opposite Railway Station. 'Guaranteed permanent cure for indigestion.'
22Aug31: Harry Leu tinsmith Casino
19Sep31: Japanese ship Maru leaves Byron Bay with first load of railway sleepers for China.
20Oct31: Yamato Laundry Keen St damaged in fire.

18Jan32: Tommy Young, previously a cook, now middle-aged herbalist Bridge St Nth Lis.
22Feb32: Japanese invade China.
5Jul32: Hop Lee, market gardener illegally selling veggies from horse and cart Woodlark Street.
22Sep32: Vivian Y. Chow, a Shanghai journalist, returned Sydney yesterday. Will write book on the founding of the Chinese Republic, in which Australian Chinese played a big part.
27Sep32: Grafton Boy in Chinese Revolution. Tse Tsan-tai, aka Jimmy Ah See, born Grafton 1872. Moved Tingha with father John See then China and became prominent Boxer Rebellion.
7Oct32: Vivian Young Chow visits Grafton, birthplace of Tse Tsan Tsi, in connection with book on 'this leader of the revolutionary movement'. History book sponsored by Institute of Journalists of China
29/30Nov/5/25Dec32: Chinese-Australian Trade. Articles by Vivian Yung Chow, editor United China magazine, Foreign Editor, Sin Wan Pao, Shanghai, China.
9Dec32: Vivian Yung Chow will finish visit to Lismore next weekend and return China shortly

11Feb33: Orientals Feed Spirit. Strange Ceremony in Lismore Graveyard.... The dead Chinaman was known to his countrymen and many North Coast residents as Willie Bue (aka Low Bue), and his death lessened the ranks of the Orientals, which were once almost 100 strong in this district, to less than a dozen. Willie Bue was a market gardener on the Woodlawn road adjoining Lismore, and had visited other centres on the Richmond for varying periods. He was born in Canton, 73 years ago, and spent 40 years in Australia. Two years ago he returned from China after his third trip 'home' to see relatives. Early marriages are the custom in China, and Bue was married at an early age. He has a boy and a girl in China. He died on Saturday after a long illness. Yet Wah, Wong Chun, and Jimmy Long were the only three Chinese who attended the burial. Each of these migrated to Australia at an early age and have spent more than 30 years in the Commonwealth.... Even had the hour been favourable, Yet Wah explained, there would not have been very many more Orientals present, as the representatives of his race in this district had dwindled down to about half a dozen.... In ten weeks time the Chinese community will pay homage to their dead countrymen, about 30 of whom are buried in the Lismore cemetery. The age old custom of a feast with the dead at the cemetery has been supplanted, principally because of the sacrilege of some youthful Australians who have raided the graves.... The visit to the burial ground, however, will never be omitted, Yet Wah explained, even though the community has now been reduced to a few old men.... the Chinese show a remarkably keen sense of gratitude for any service that is rendered them....
21Mar33: Another 3000 sleepers for China loaded in Japanese ship Asama Maru at Byron Bay.
24Mar33: SS Tarcoola loads 3000 sleepers on third trip.
19Jul33: Theft Kwong Sing's store Casino
21/29Jul33: James Long, aged 56, brother-in-law of Mrs Long, false pretences. Con man - not without the air of suave dignity that sometimes marks the Oriental.... said his father was a Chinese merchant....
17Aug33: Missionary Binks family of Bangalow holiday home from China.
30Dec33: John Ching, aged 84, and Lum Shup, market gardeners of St Helena, storing veggies in hut in which they live - close to their stretchers on which they sleep.
23Jul83: Death of Horrie Kwann Fatt, Chairman of Casino Newspaper Pty Ltd.

 Top of Page

Yung Family
[Foon (aka Frederick) Yung m. Jessie M. King 1894 Casino. Luther J.L. b. 1895 Lismore. Isadore S. b. 1904 and d. 1905 Lis. Vivian R.P. b. 1906 Lis. Lavina C. b. 1898 Lis.
Foon Tang Yung d. 1967 aged 80 Darlinghurst?
Vivien Robert Paul Yung d. 1941 Sydney aged 35. Mother Jessie Mary
Jessie Mary Yung d. 1943 Burwood, dau of Stephen and Annie Lavina
Sun Hung Kee / Hung Kee Sun m. Annie Lavina Lavett 1877 Grafton (Jessie M Lavett m. William Harman 1878 Sydney)
Vivian Yung contributed to The Lens magazine of Lismore High School in the 1920s. Luther worked at Northern Star until age 30 and later interned China.
Vivian later went back to China and became a political adviser and historian. History of family by Glen Hall in ‘Celestials in the Great Garden’
Foon Young b. 1868 China first reg Melb little Bourke St 1916
Fed Govt File Yung, Luther J.L., (thru Sir Earle Page), info re
China. NAA document Barcode 3022942, Series No A10302, Control Symbol 1956/1009
Luther Yung of 287 Kingsgrove Rd, Kingsgrove 30Apr1956 writes to Hon Sir Earle Page.
Arrived back Sydney Sep1953 after 30yrs China and wrote Page offering info and knowledge. Visited Victoria Barracks a number of times and gave advice to people, but regretted that only subject discussed was military and that the more significant, in my opinion, aspects of the new regime’s economic, cultural, industrial and psychological programmes were passed over.
Left Shanghai after 25yrs with the “North-China Daily” and allegedly executive officer of the only English speaking language newspaper published behind the bamboo and iron curtains
People’s China was my father’s country, Australia the land of my birth. Therefore, I believe I am not a partisan to either, but can speak dispassionately.
I write this letter, not in any spirit of anger or resentment, but only of sorrow that it seems to me that the spirit of the Australia of the days of my youth is giving way to an expediency that by-passes tradition and ideals as being old-fashioned.
My old schoolmaster, the late James B. Telfer, always urged us to stand for truth and ideals, no matter the cost, and my conscience tells me that I did not fail him when I took the step to inform my government that my services, however humble they might be, were theirs for the asking. My duty is done.
Page sent it onto The Hon R.G. Casey C.E., DSO., MS., MP, Min for External Affairs, who passed it on to ‘appropriate quarters’
Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective – Conference papers 10/11Oct2004.
Part 3, Migration and Other Voyages
Ch 6. Revolution and Respectability: Chinese Masons in Australian History by John Fitzgerald.
References to Australian journalist Vivian Chow, son of Foon Yung (Chow Toong Yung) and Jessie Ah King, dau of Stephen King who was ‘the second Grand Master of a rural Masonic Lodge in NSW and a pioneer revolutionary in what he called the ‘Revolutionary and
Independence Association of Australian Chinese’. Father Foon Yung reported to have been co-leader of this Australian revolutionary party with his friend John See of Grafton. Vivian wrote for ‘United China’ 1933.
John See of Grafton, and children, James, Sarah, Thomas and Sam, moved Hong Kong 1887.

National Archives Brisbane:
Eke, George - Nationality: Japanese - Alien Registration Certificate No 55 issued at Lismore 
Mura, Shozi - Nationality: Japanese - Alien Registration Certificate No 13 issued 24 October 1916 at Ballina, Certificate No 32 issued 5 August 1919 at Casino, NSW
Mura, Shozi - Nationality: Japanese - Alien Registration Certificate No 13 issued 24 October 1916 at Ballina, Certificate No 32 issued 5 August 1919 at Casino, NSW
Kanadawa, Janet Proudfoot - Nationality: Japanese - Alien Registration Certificate No 4 issued
21 October 1916 at Kyogle
Kanadawa, George - Nationality: Japanese - Alien Registration Certificate No 3 issued 21 October 1916 at Kyogle

Tiy, Ching - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 12 issued 12 October 1916 at Lismore
Chee, Kop - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 31 issued 27 October 1916 at Mullumbimby
Soo, Lum - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 40 issued at Enoggera and Mullumbimby
Sam, Whong - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 15 issued at Mullumbimby
Wah, Johnie Ah - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 33 issued 27 October 1916 at Mullumbimby
Lum, Foo - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 28 issued 27 October 1916 at Mullumbimby
Sing, Look - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 21 issued 27 October 1916 at Mullumbimby
Dick, Foo - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 42 issued 29 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Tim , Charlie - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 48 of 1916 issued
30 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Gay, Lee - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 46 of 1916 issued 30 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Chee, Young - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 41 issued 30 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Han, Young - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 470/1916 issued 30 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Gett, Sue - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 61 issued 4 February 1918 at Murwillumbah, Certificate No 3331 issued 2 September 1918 at Thursday Island
Hop, Yee - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation - Cook] [Born 1867] - Alien Registration Certificate No 40 issued 27 October 1916 at Murwillumbah, Certificate No 7463 issued 16 May 1920 at Thursday Island
Look, Ah - Nationality: Chinese [DOB: 1861, Occupation: Gardener] - Alien Registration Certificate No 31/1916 issued 26 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Tan, Charlie - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 24 issued at Murwillumbah
How, Young - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation - Labourer] [Born 1868] - Alien Registration Certificate No 47 of 1916 issued 30 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Tamson [Tam Son], Harry [also known as Yip Fat] - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 60 issued 13 November 1917 at Murwillumbah
You, Chung Wang - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 37/1916 issued 27 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Gow, Lee - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation - Farmer] [Born 1868] - Alien Registration Certificate No 44/1916 issued 29 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Quay, James - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 25/1916 issued 24 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Hoy, Lee - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation - Gardener] [Born July 1867] - Alien Registration Certificate No 57 of 1916 issued 25 November 1916 at Murwillumbah
Koin, Chong - Nationality: Chinese [DOB: 1867, Occupation: Gardener] - Alien Registration Certificate No 22 issued 24 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Jack, Wong - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 32/1916 issued 26 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Young, Charlie - Nationality: Chinese [DOB: February 1861, Occupation: Gardener] - Alien Registration Certificate No 27 issued 24 October 1916 at Murwillumbah
Poon, Low - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 20/16 issued at Casino
Kong, Young - Nationality: Chinese [DOB: 1873, Occupation: Fruiterer] - Alien Registration Certificate No 17/16 issued 23 October 1916 at Casino
Lum, Yorng - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 19/16 issued 23 October 1916 at Casino
Lum, Young - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 19 issued at Casino
Tong, Charlie See - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 2 issued at Casino
Hing, Go - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 16 issued at Ballina
Wong, Charley - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation - Gardener, DOB July 1855] - Alien Registration Certificate No 8 issued at 4 June 1918 at Bangalow
Lan, CHarlie Moi - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 6 issued
23 October 1916 at Kyogle
Ching, Charlie Ah - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 9 issued 31 October 1916 at Coraki
Lee, George Sing - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 4 issued 14 October 1916 at Tweed Heads
Young, Willie - Nationality: Chinese [Occupation: unknown] - Alien Registration Certificate No 5 issued at Tweed Heads
Sam, Choy - Nationality: Chinese - Alien Registration Certificate No 2 issued at Tumbulgum

Grace Jack, b. 1916 one of eight children of Lee Kee Chong and Agnes Yaupong. She grew up in Moree and then, with her family, moved to Sydney. At about the age of nine she paid a visit to China for around two years. She later joined the staff of the Kwong Sing store in Glen Innes where she met and married Fred Jack. The couple eventually settled in Inverell. Fred Jack died in a drowning accident in 1931. In order to support herself and her two sons, Grace Jack worked as a pianist. She died in 1983.Believed to be in Mullum at some stage. (Ref: Trevor Jack interviewed by Janis Wilton, Coonabarabran, 25 June 1990.)

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