of l i t e r a c y in any E u r o p e a n language. By p u t t i n g
r e s t r i c t i o n on e d u c a t i o n a l and not on r a c i a l groun d s , these laws w o u l d not be so p l a i n l y o b j e c t i o n a b l e to I n d i a n s and J a p a n e s e . This s u g g e s t i o n was a c c e p t e d by m o s t of the c o l o n i e s ; W e s t e r n A u s t r a l i a (1897), N e w S o u t h W a l e s (1898) and T a s m a n i a (1899) took the lead in e n a c t i n g r e s t r i c t i o n laws on the N a t a l Mod e l , w h i l e r e t a i n i n g their old t o n n a g e limits a g a i n s t the C h i n e s e . Q u e e n s l a n d f o l l o w e d a d i f f e r e n t path, kept its a n t i - C h i n e s e laws, n e g o t i a t e d in 1897 w i t h J a p a n to r e s t r i c t v o l u n t a r i l y the n u m b e r of J a p a n e s e
i m m i g r a n t s , but i m p o s e d no r e s t r i c t i o n on I n d i a n s and o t her c o l o u r e d p e r sons.
The r e s t r i c t i v e p o l i c i e s of the c o l o n i e s were e f f e c t i v e in c h e c k i n g C h i n e s e a r r i v a l s . F r o m a r o u n d 1881, C h i n e s e a r r i v a l s d e c l i n e d but d e p a r t u r e s w e r e c o n s i s t e n t at a high level ( a p p r o x i m a t e l y 2 , 5 0 0 - 3 , 0 0 0 per year for Ne w S o u t h W a l e s and V i c t o r i a ) such that the total n u m b e r of C h i n e s e in A u s t r a l i a in 1901 was o n l y 29,627 w h i l e it is b e l i e v e d to have b e e n at one time b e t w e e n 4 5 , 0 0 0 to 50,000.
W h i l e A u s t r a l i a n r e s t r i c t i o n laws f u n c t i o n e d to d i s c o u r a g e C h i n e s e i m m i g r a t i o n , the high r a t e s of d e p a r t u r e c a n n o t be
e x p l a i n e d by t h ese laws w h i c h were a f f e c t i n g n e w c o m e r s
rather than t h ose d o m i c i l e d . The p r e s s u r e from their f a m i l y - l i n e a g e to r e t u r n and the t e m p o r a r y n a t u r e of the e a r l y
C h i n e s e s e t t l e m e n t w e r e i m p o r t a n t c a u s e s of the r a p i d d e c l i n e of the C h i n e s e p o p u l a t i o n d u r i n g this period.
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