§ MR. LOUGHI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether in any of the Laws or Ordinances providing for Asiatic immigration into other parts of the British Empire, there are restrictions similar to those contained in Section 14 of the Transvaal Ordinance debarring Chinese labourers from holding any liquor, mining, trading, general dealer's, importer's, hawker's, or other licence whatever, and making it unlawful for Chinese labourers to acquire, lease, or hold any house, land, building or fixed property, or any claim or any right whatsoever to minerals or precious stones; and, if not, why these precedents are not followed.
§ *MR. LYTTELTONIf the hon. Member wishes for an exhaustive answer I shall have to ask him to postpone his Question; but so far as I am able to answer it at present, I am informed that 1249 there are two recent Australian Acts of Parliament which do restrict Asiatic labour from certain employments. The latter part of the Question in regard to precedents is therefore not exactly in point, bat there is no precedent for the exact condition or even the general condition of the present Ordinance.