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Finding the Chinese perspective:

Locating Chinese petitions against anti-Chinese legislation during the mid to late 1850s

Anna Kyi

2009 Number 8 Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6

Table 2: Petitions against the proposed Chinese residence tax 1857

Authors Petition No. Page No. No. of Signatures
Natives of China residing in the Colony of Victoria E 56 p. 975 130
Residents in Victoria belonging to the Chinese Nation E 57 p. 977 238
Chinese Resident in Castlemaine E 66 p. 995 2873
Storekeepers and Traders resident in the District of Castlemaine (Europeans) E 68 p. 999 35
Sitting on Chinese Business E 76 p. 1015 Not indicated

 


Table 3: Petitions against the Chinese influx 1857

Authors Petition No. Page No. No. of Signatures
Members of the Local Court of Castlemaine E 38 p. 939 JM Bull on behalf of court
Members of the Local Court of Fryer's Creek E 58 p. 979 9
Chairmen of large influential meetings that have taken place at Castlemaine, Campbell's Creek, Forest Creek, etc. E 61 p. 985 2
Miners and others of the Jim Crow Goldfields E 64 p. 991 345
Inhabitants of Geelong in a Public Meeting Assembled E 65 p. 993 Mayor on behalf of meeting
Miners and others, Inhabitants of Sandy Creek E 72 p. 1007 250
Miners, Shopkeepers and others Residents of the McIvor goldfields E 75 p. 1013 328
Gold Miners and Others, Residing on Campbell's Creek E 77 p. 1017 1601

Original petitions in the Legislative Assembly records

Accessing the original petitions held in the Legislative Assembly records at PROV is one way to address gaps in the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly. So far, few researchers have considered looking at this source. This is not surprising as access is not particularly easy. It is necessary to seek permission from the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly before PROV is able to give researchers access, and until now there has been no index to locate which units the petitions are located in. The Legislative Assembly papers are kept in chronological order. You can narrow the search down by looking through the index to the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly to find out when a particular petition was tabled.

Besides filling in gaps in the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, there are other reasons that might make consulting the originals worthwhile. The significance of the signatures on original petitions requires further examination to determine whether they can present any new insights into the Chinese presence. Can the 1857 Chinese Castlemaine petition, which contains names in both Chinese and English, be used to assist individuals who are researching their family history? Can the signatures on these petitions be used to track the movement of Chinese individuals around the goldfields? In his research on Chinese petitions against opium smoking in 1884, Dr Kok pointed out that 'The symbolic grouping and arrangement of names and the very names themselves, indicated most retained much of their traditional Chinese beliefs, as well as their associations with lodges to which they belonged and as members of which they had worked for gold'.3 Can these petitions reveal the same type of information? A lot depends on the type of Chinese name used on the petition. A Chinese man can have up to five different names: the name he was given as a baby; the scholastic name his teacher gave him; the name he received after marriage and some men had honorific names which suggested their rank or generation.

2009 Number 8 Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next Page


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