LEPRA IN AUSTRALIA. 1043 
years), for they were seldom distinguished in the census abstracts. 
Thus, in 1863, both they and members of other coloured races 
were scarcely known in Tasmania. They were present in noticeable 
number in 1875. They were first distinguished at the census of 
1881, and then numbered 844; and in 1891 had increased to 
943. In Western Australia -they were first distinguished in 
1881 (145), and there were 917 in 1891; but there is no doubt 
they were present before the first-mentioned date. In South 
Australia, Chinese were a curiosity in 1860. They were distin- 
guished at the two latest censuses, and then numbered 321 and 
288. In Queensland there were some Chinese as early as 1853. 
“‘ Natives of China and Japan” were enumerated (538) in 1861, 
increased to 10,000 in 1876 (but they were nearly all Chinese), 
were separately enumerated in 1881 (11,000), and numbered 
8,522 in 1891. Chinese appeared in the Northern Territory in 
or shortly after 1872. There were 2,722 in 1881, and 3,447 in 
1891. Now, in all those territories the danger from imported 
lepra to the white inhabitants lay with the Chinese, and, with 
exception of Queensland, with Chinese alone. In Queensland, 
which is a sugar-growing country, large numbers of kanakas have 
been introduced from various lepra-infested groups of islands in 
the South Seas: to work on the plantations. They began to arrive 
in 1863. They increased from 1,543, in 1868, to more than 11,000, 
in 1881, thereafter decreasing to between 8,000 and 9,000 in 1891. 
There have never been other than casual, almost it may be said 
individual, kanakas either in New South Wales or Victoria, and 
none at all elsewhere. As regards possible importation of lepra, 
then, it is quite certain that the people of Queensland ran risks 
both from kanakas and Chinese ; but those of New South Wales 
and Victoria (and the remaining territories) from Chinese alone. 
The occupations followed by the Chinese always included 
cooking, market-gardening, peddling, &c., as well as mining. In 
earliest years they were almost always employed in the first- 
mentioned businesses, and in stores. During the middle period 
the largest proportion of the total were occupied in placer gold- 
digging. Inlater years the proportion of miners among them 
fell, and probably the larger portion present followed one or other 
of the trades. They have always been perfectly free within the 
country, and lived and travelled where they liked. They live 
largely by themselves, at gardens, and in particular quarters of 
towns and cities, but they mix freely with the whites. The cooks 
alone, as a rule, are employed in the houses of the whites, and 
then at hotels and boarding-houses, The relations of the 
kanakas to the whites are slightly different (in Queensland): they 
were imported under a contract to work for so many years, at the 
end of which they were to be returned to their islands, if they 
chose ; but if they preferred to remain they could either re-engage 
