"All the rights and capacities"? Chinese naturalisation and colonial mobility

Keynote lecture When applying for naturalisation, alien residents of the colonies of New South Wales and South Australia sought to be granted ‘all the rights and capacities’ of a natural-born British subject. Such ‘rights and capacities’ could include the right to reside in the colony, to own property, to vote and to hold public office, yet for many colonial Chinese it was the right of movement, rather than rights of settlement, that prompted them to become British subjects. Anti-Chinese legislation introduced in New South Wales and South Australia in 1881 provided exemptions for Chinese British subjects, meaning they could enter without paying the £10 poll tax, a facility that resulted in a significant increase in naturalisation applications. By 1888, when Chinese naturalisation ceased, around 950 Chinese in New South Wales and 300 in South Australia (including the Northern Territory) had taken out naturalisation, the majority of these granted in the early 1880s. This paper examines the relationship between Chinese naturalisation and colonial mobility in late nineteenth century Australia, specifically in New South Wales and South Australia. It focuses on three interconnected stories: the re-introduction of Chinese restriction laws in the 1880s, the case of prominent Adelaide merchant Way Lee, and the second lives of naturalisation certificates used by Chinese to enter Australia. Together these stories demonstrate the dual histories of inclusion and exclusion embodied in the lives of naturalised Chinese colonists, and suggest a new approach to the history of colonial anti-Chinese laws, one that critically examines policies and practices of exclusion and discrimination while also acknowledging the agency and enterprise of Chinese colonists