Poll tax certificate 1881

Ah Bow, 1881 poll tax certificate

Ah Bow, 1881 poll tax certificate

Image Courtesy of: Michael Williams

The Influx of Chinese Restrictions Act of 1881 introduced a £10 poll tax on Chinese people entering the Colony of NSW as well as a tonnage restiction and a bar to naturalisation. For those already resident a certificate such as this was required to re-enter NSW.

Such paperwork was often handled by businesses of behalf of those travlelling, especially as the purchased of a steamer ticket often required such a documents be shown first. On the back was usually written in Chinese the persons name or in this case a fuller description.

Ah Bow reverse

Image Courtesy of: Michael Williams

The handwriting reads in vertical columns, from right to left:

光緒十三年二月十二日回港
番人四月四号
船名叫天那帶
人名亞保
三十四歲。來雪梨一十三年
在窩假窩假種烟園回唐

Translation:

Returned to Hong Kong on the twelfth day of the second lunar month, in the thirteenth year of Guangxu [1887].
Western date: 4 April.
Ship’s name: 天那帶 [phonetic rendering; Tannadice?].
Name: Ah Bow.
Aged 34. Came to Sydney thirteen years ago.
Worked growing tobacco at Wagga Wagga; returning to China.