Australia December 1887 - Tithes

[NZBC]

Mr John Potts, a delegate from the North Queensland Anti-Chinese League, said that in some northern towns thore were as many as 10 Chinese to one European, and these wero sent to Australia by a sort of slave syndicate in China, which forwarded agents with each to collect a percentage of their earnings, The wives and families of the emigrants were held as hostages for the payment of a tithe of their wages, and worn punished and sometimes killed when the emigrant did not pay the igont of the syndicate A member of the South Australian Legislature, he mid, had admitted to him that this was so, and that ho was negotiating with Mr Wah Lee, of that city, to import Chinese for his plantation. It had been olaimed that it would be unconstitutional to refuse to admit Chinese to these shores.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WH18871228.2.11&cl=search&srpos=131&e=-------100--101----0wah+lee-all&st=1

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6401, 28 December 1887, Page 2