This document discusses the bureaucracy and policies around immigration in White Australia during the early 20th century. It references documents from the National Archives of Australia related to fingerprinting immigrants, particularly Chinese and Indian immigrants. It discusses the use of fingerprints to identify immigrants and references them being described as "wily" or facing "indignities". It also discusses prohibited immigrants, the dictation test used to evaluate immigrants, and legal cases related to determining who constitutes an Australian constituent.

1. Inside the
bureaucracy of
White Australia

2. MATERIALS REQUIRED.
PADS.—Two pads, covered
with strong calico, and tacked
upon a piece of wood an inch
thick and nine inches long by
about seven inches wide.
INK.—Black printing ink.

3. National Archives of Australia: ST84/1, 1905/291-300

4. fingerprints

5. National Archives of Australia: SP42/1, C1915/8162

6. National Archives of Australia: E752, 1915/20

7. National Archives of Australia: ST84/1, 1909/21/21-30

8. ‘the wily chinese’
‘Then the handprint experts
went to work - Detective Potter
and his assistant; Detective
Johnstone, of the Criminal
Investigation Branch; and Mr.
Shaw, the expert at Pentridge
Prison.’
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5421275

9. ‘the degrading
hand-print’
‘As the impression of hand-prints
was only required of criminals in
China the practice now followed
by the Commonwealth in
connection with the return to
Australia of Chinese on a
certificate issued by the Customs
was insulting to the Chinese...
Other reasonable and sufficient
means of identification could
easily be adopted in lieu of the
degrading hand-print...’
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15169561

10. ‘the handprint
indignity’
‘Forty lives have been lost, mainly
Lascars, and the survivors, after
their narrow escape from the jaws
of death, were at once pounced
upon by officials, and compelled
to give their handprints.’
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15169561

11. faces
http://invisibleaustralians.org/faces/

12. prohibited
3. The immigration into the
Commonwealth of the persons
described in any of the following
paragraphs of this section (herein-
after called “prohibited immigrants”)
is prohibited, namely:—
(a) Any person who when asked to
do so by an officer fails to write out
at dictation and sign in the presence
of the officer a passage of fifty words
in length in an European language
directed by the officer;

13. prohibited immigrant

14. prohibited immigrants

15. ‘the test’
Donohoe v Wong Sau [1925] HCA 6:
‘I regard the test as being whether
the person is a constituent part of
the Australian community.’
‘I think the Chief Justice has hit the
nail on the head when he said that
the respondent was not coming
home.’
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3379665
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/1925/6.html

16. prohibited immigrant

17. poon gooey

18. prohibited immigrant

19. keys

20. 1 0.55539 passport ah student exemption students lee wong chinese
young deserter education sing wing chong readmission son hing chin wife

21. files

22. functions

23. macroappraisal
Governance emphasizes the dialogue and interaction of
citizens and groups with the state as much as the state’s own
policies and procedures; focuses as well on documenting the
impact of the state on society, and the functions and activities
of society itself; encompasses all media rather than privileging
written text; searches for multiple narratives and hot spots of
contested discourse between citizen and state, rather than
accepting the official policy line; and deliberately seeks to give
voice to the marginalized, to losers as well as winners, to the
disadvantaged and underprivileged as well as the powerful and
articulate, which is accomplished through new ways of looking
at case files and electronic data and then choosing the most
succinct record in the best medium for documenting these
diverse voices.
Terry Cook

24. http://invisibleaustralians.org/