Chinese involvement in Te Aroha and its mining

Abstract

No Chinese mined in the Te Aroha district, but a few lived there quietly as market gardeners and owners of laundries. A few Chinese children attended the local school, provoking a controversy about these allegedly unclean children that saw the complainant defeated by public and press opinion. Only two Chinese invested in local mining; the career of one of these, Ah Chee, is summarized. Perhaps because so few Chinese lived in the district they were not seen as a problem by anyone apart from rival business men and women.