Kōrero: Family welfare

Denied the old age pension (2 o 2)

Denied the old age pension

Chinese immigrants to New Zealand were not eligible for the old age pension. The exclusion of Chinese was consistent with prejudice against Asians generally as 'barbarians' whose language, pigtails, and practice of sending money home to China generated suspicion and dislike. This elderly Chinese man would not have enjoyed the household comforts of the pensioners photographed by Enos Silvanus Pegler in his series celebrating the passing of the Old Age Pensions Act 1898. Like many elderly Chinese, he probably lived in makeshift accommodation, either by himself or with other men. The bundle of firewood on his back suggests the he sold firewood to others on the goldfields in Lawrence – Otago's first gold-rush town.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Hocken Library, University of Otago
Reference: S10-151a

Permission of the Hocken Library Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Te tuhi tohutoro mō tēnei whārangi:

Maureen Baker and Rosemary Du Plessis, 'Family welfare - Mothers and children – 1800s to 1917', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/photograph/27298/denied-the-old-age-pension (accessed 29 March 2024)

He kōrero nā Maureen Baker and Rosemary Du Plessis, i tāngia i te 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 29 Jun 2018