Naturalisation, Chin Toy

Naturalisation letter of Chin Toy (1863-1947)

It was on 27 October 1884 that Chin Toy, or Ching Toy as his Letter of Naturalization shows, at the age of 20 years and after spending a period of 18 months as a resident of South Australia was granted naturalization. On a trip to Hong Kong via Thursday Island in 1933 Chin Toy lost his naturalization papers. He was returning to Hong Kong together with his daughter-in-law and her children on the SS Taiping when there was a threat from a typhoon. The boat carrying the luggage to the hotel was capsized and various pieces of luggage were lost, including one belonging to Chin Toy containing his naturalization certificate. Many anxious months passed before he was able to obtain a copy of the all-important document.
After 1885 the South Australian government did not approve any further naturalisations and up till that period only 102 Chinese had been naturalised. Those who were not naturalised and stayed were given an 'Exemption Certificate', which allowed the holder the freedom to leave Australia and return at will.

Source: Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography / edited by David Carment, Robyn Maynard, Alan Powell https://dcarment.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ntdictionaryofbiography.pdf

After 1901 the Customs Officials of the seperate colonies now administered Commonwealth immigration laws which also gave similar exceptions known as CEDTs.

Chin Toy loss of naturalisation

Image Courtesy of: NAA