Immigration Restriction Act 1901 The White Australia Policy

Immigration Restriction Act (1901) The White Australia Policy

Immigration Restriction Act “All aboriginal inhabitants of Africa, Asia and Polynesia should be subjected to the test … unless they are Pacific Island labourers, or are otherwise exempted. In the case of White Races, the test will be applied only under special circumstances. ”

Purpose "To place certain restrictions on Immigration and to provide for the removal from the Commonwealth of Prohibited Immigrants. " Immigration Restriction Act, Assented to December 23, 1901

Australia’s 1 st major new law On December 23, 1901 the Immigration Restriction Act received Royal Assent. It was the first major piece of legislation passed by the new Federal Parliament, and allowed the new country to exercise the policy of White Australia.

Features: Dictation test ‘in any European language’ of 50 words Carried out by Customs officers at point of entry to Australia If a person failed, they were refused entry a person failed, and they were already in Australia, they were put in jail for 6 months, and then deported.

Implementation On May 28, 1902, the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Atlee Hunt, wrote the following to the Prime Minister, Edmund Barton: "… We continue to eject the monstrous Jap and the wily Chow with persistence. The I. R Act has not exhausted its possibilities yet. I have four matters now with the Attorney-General (head of the govt’s law dept) for opinion. The April returns show that no coloured aliens passed the test, over 40 were rejected, mostly chows who tried to enter Queensland on false papers. "

Directions to Customs Officers: The English Language will in general be adopted for the purpose of the test; but if in your opinion, the immigrant would, for reasons which you would be prepared to state, be an undesirable immigrant, it may be better to substitute for the English test, a passage from some other language. The choice of the language and of the passage will be left to your discretion …

Selectively applied: There were a number of cases where, at the discretion of a customs official, an applicant with a good command of English was required to take the test in another European language. "A German subject … was released last week from Maitland prison and by commonwealth authorities in Newcastle submitted to a test in the Greek language although he speaks German, English and French. As he could not pass the test, he was sentenced in Newcastle to six months imprisonment for being a prohibited immigrant…“ Example of Dictation passage - blank screen …

Examples of the Dictation Test Text 1 "Very many considerations lead to the conclusion that life began on sea, first as single cells, then as groups of cells held together by a secretion of mucilage, then as filaments and tissues. " 1907 Text 2 "We have no reason to suppose that the ice-caps will alter in our favour. On the contrary, the sun and the earth are slowly cooling. In ages to come, the course of things would apparently have to be that the ice-caps slowly extended from either Pole, and crowded man towards the tropics. " October, 1 - 31, 1940

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