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Post by nzbc on Jul 20, 2008 10:17:35 GMT 12
tpo.tepapa.govt.nz/ViewTopicExhibitDetail.asp?ExhibitionID=past_cg&ExhibitID=0x000ae1c1&Language=EnglishThe first Chinese people that came to this country endured discrimination, loneliness, and hardship - a situation that would continue for them, their descendants, and new Chinese immigrants for over a century. But they would experience triumphs and happiness too. After Polynesians and Europeans, Chinese are New Zealand's largest ethnic community. New Zealand's first-known Chinese settler was Wong ah Poo Hoc Ting ('Appo Hocton'), who arrived in Nelson in 1842 as a steward on a migrant ship. Later, the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce invited Chinese from the Victoria goldfields in Australia to work in the Central Otago goldfields. Many of the European miners had abandoned these 'exhausted' fields in favour of new goldfields on the West Coast, and local businesses saw hardworking Chinese as a way of reviving their now depressed local economy. In 1866, twelve Chinese miners landed in Dunedin. By the end of 1866, there were 1219 Chinese in Otago.
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