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"A chap shuffled in one spring morning he was creamy and wore strange loose clothes
and he studied us shovels for some minutes, it was finally me that he chose.
He felt me and tossed me and swung me - I felt like a child's new toy
but I sneaked a quick glance o'er his shoulder on the docket he signed - Charles Sew Hoy."
from 'Never Say Only' by Des Styles

The Chinese in Otago

The gold seekers included around 10,000 Chinese, predominantly men.

Up until the turn of the century the chief occupation of the Chinese in New Zealand was gold mining. The non-miners in gold mining towns provided services to miners - storekeepers, hotel workers and owners, gardeners, carpenters and joiners, gambling and opium house operators.

At first the Europeans and Chinese coexisted peacefully, but gradually, resentment began to build up against the Chinese. To begin with, this was not about race - instead it was based around competition and sojournism. But by the 1880's times had changed, and racism was a problem. The 1881 Chinese Immigrants Act imposed a poll tax of ten pounds on all new immigrants, in an attempt to exclude them.

Anti-Chinese feeling was such that the Chinese tended to move together and live in separate camps.

The worst racism was in Alexandra and Naseby. Violence did not reach the proportions of the Californian and Victorian goldmines, where killing rampages were common. However, the Chinese had to face practical jokes, their possessions were burnt, stones were thrown and there was name-calling.

The Mt Ida Chronicle recorded the controversial hanging of Ah Lee, a Chinese miner, for the motiveless murder of the Widow Young in Naseby.

On one occasion in Naseby, a young Chinese man was reported to have been forced into a barrel, and rolled down Leven Street. The barrel crashed into the Hotel and the young man sustained injuries which he later died from. They say Naseby was never the same after that day.

Chinese miners "exhibited a remarkable adaptability and versatility with regard to 'house' construction". The Chinese preferred to build huts or adapt caves, rather than live in tents. They used virtually anything that came to hand to help build their homes - one hut in Cromwell had a chimney made entirely out of old billy-cans.

Walking through the Naseby Forest area, you will come across well-preserved and documented gold artefacts and workings in place, including piping and several of the hydralic monitors used for sluicing the faces along with some excellent explanatory boards. Many of the trails ridden my mountain bikers are old Chinese Mining tracks. The Chinese were great engineers. A feature of the water race system in the Forest are the unique water race "funnels" built by Chinese to take water across valleys in the landscape to feed the water sluicing equipment in the goldfields.

The decline in mining continued, and the old miners died off. In 1921, only 59 Chinese gold seekers remained in the Otago region. It was the end of an era.

Generally the Chinese gold miners were a quiet, retiring people, but several did go on to make a name for themselves. Choie Sew Hoy and James Shum were two of these. See here.

Des Styles, one of Naseby's favourite poets, and regular winner of the annual Masters Gold Panning Championship, has written poems dedicated to the Chinese miners; one in particular to Charles Sew Hoy called 'Never Say Only'.

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