History
Overview
During the 19th Century there was growing interest in the New Guinea region from European nations with a history of colonial conquest.
In the 1870s and 1880s, German commercial firms began their foray into New Guinea. For the Germans, New Guinea was basically a business venture. Thousands of local workers were hired as cheap labor on cocoa and copra plantations.
In 1883, following a short-lived French annexation of New Ireland, the British Colony of Queensland annexed south-eastern New Guinea to the disapproval of superiors in the United Kingdom who refused to ratify the annexation. Significant change occurred in eastern New Guinea in 1884 as the German and British / Australian contingents staked their claims for land.
The New Guinea Company was founded in Berlin in 1884 for the purpose of colonising and exploiting resources on Neuguinea. This expedition was with the knowledge and blessing of the German Chancellor, Count Otto von Bismarck. The goal was to select land for plantation development on the north-east coast of New Guinea and establish trading posts.
On the 19th August, Chancellor Bismarck ordered the establishment of a German protectorate in the New Britain Archipelago and north-eastern New Guinea, known as German New Guinea (later named Kaiser-Wilhelmsland), which formed the first part of the German colonial empire. When Germany began claiming these settlements in the north, the United Kingdom established a British protectorate on the 6th November in the south-eastern quarter of New Guinea that Queensland had previously annexed, named British New Guinea.
In 1902, British New Guinea was transferred to the authority of Australia and with the passage of the Papua Act 1905, the area was officially renamed the Territory of Papua.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Australia invaded Kaiser-Wilhelmsland on 11 September 1914 with 2000 volunteers of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. After several skirmishes, the Australians succeeded in capturing the German colony, which they occupied for the rest of the war. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 transferred German New Guinea to Australia, which administered it as the Territory of New Guinea.
This arrangement temporarily ceased in 1941 when the Japanese invaded New Guinea shortly after the start of the Pacific War. Civil administration of Papua and New Guinea was restored in 1945 at the end of the Japanese occupation. The Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 united the Territory of Papua and Territory of New Guinea as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.
On 13 December 1971 the name of the territory was changed to Papua New Guinea, and independence was ultimately achieved on 16 September 1975 during the Whitlam government's tenure.
Colonialism
Following is a condensed summary about the Chinese in New Guinea. The intent is to provide a jumping point for further reading whilst injecting my family's history into the story. Ah Tam, Ah Lok, Achai, and Akun are not related to me but are too pivotal to not mention.
Chinese settlement in New Guinea was largely initiated by Germany's colonisation of the north-eastern part of the New Guinea Island in the 1870s and 1880s. The Neuguinea Kompagnie (NGK) was formed on 26th May 1984 and entrusted with the administration and economic development of the New Guinea area. They were motivated by the success of Dutch colonisation.
Germany urged the development of plantations that could output tobacco, spices, rubber and copra, but there was a lack of coloured labourers that could support this vision and the local natives were less than pliable in aiding the German colonisers. With the assistance of the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) shipping line (now Hapag Lloyd) and their service routes, NGK were able to fill the shortage of workers with Chinese coolies, despite them being the non-preferred option by the Germans.
Indentured Chinese labourers were sourced from Sumatra, Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China. The Chinese from Guangdong Province came from particular areas, such as Siyi (See Yap) and Huiyang. The Siyi area consists of four counties – Kaiping, Taishan, Enping, and Xinhui. Whilst the Chinese community of PNG were Cantonese there were also Hakka from the Huiyang area. Conditions on the plantations were oppressive and most labourers left New Guinea after their indentured period ended.
Pioneers
Ah Tam, a Hakka carpenter from Huiyang who arrived around 1873, may have been the earliest permanent Chinese resident of the Gazelle Peninsula. It's unknown if he arrived of his own accord or as a German slave but through his hard work and connections, Ah Tam became the wealthiest and most important person of Chinese descent in New Guinea.
Ah Lok (Paul) arrived in 1894 and initially worked as a cook on Ralum Plantation. Achai (John), his younger brother, arrived in 1897 and also worked as a cook but on Mioko in the Duke of York Islands. The youngest brother, Akun (Alois), came later, working initially for Ah Tam and progressing to opening a store in Malaguna. By the time Gabriel Chow Ying arrived from Singapore in 1901 Ah Tam was well established in Matupit. Gabriel worked for a year in his shipyard before leaving to work for the Ralung Store in Toma as a carpenter.
Rabaul & Chinatown
In 1900 the German headquarters were transferred from Friedrich Wilhelmshafen (now Madang) to Herbertshohe (now Kokopo). The Gazelle Peninsula was preferred to Kaiser-Wilhelmsland as the land was more fertile, had a better climate, and an available native labour force. This was also where the German coconut and cotton plantations were located.
The Protectorate were constantly building roads to link, and protect, scattered European settlements on the Gazelle Peninsula. As Herbertshohe grew, its shortcomings became obvious – space allocated for plantations left little room for town expansion and there was barely enough room remaining for government buildings.
When Dr Albert Hahl was appointed Governor of the Protectorate in 1902, he engaged with NDL to build a new town to replace Herbertshohe. The inner harbour of Blanche Bay was selected and in 1903 construction on a deepwater wharf began. It's possible that NGK and NDL engaged with Ah Tam to import Chinese stevedores to assist with building the wharf. The core infrastructure was completed by the end of 1905. This new town was called Rabaul, meaning 'mangroves' in the local Kuanua dialect. Chow Ying went back to China in 1905 and brought his wife to New Guinea in 1906.
Governor Hahl needed tradesmen and artisans to build Rabaul and was relying on Asian labour to achieve this. He also wanted to confine the Chinese to a specific area, as was the same intention with Malays, Europeans, and natives. Hahl initially offered to lease 17 acres of land to in Rabaul to Seeto Lui (also known as Seeto Nui) who rejected it. Ah Tam was offered the same land (with additional conditions) and accepted.
Rabaul's importance to the Germans was cemented in 1910 when the seat of government moved there from Herbertshohe. However they were unable to hold this jewel in their colonial crown after losing the region to the Australians in 1914 (at the beginning of World War I). Upon the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, German New Guinea was officially mandated to Australia.
Ah Tam's wealth flourished from his land arrangements and plethora of businesses. Such was his business savvy that he was the main supplier of vessels in the area, diminishing the reliance on the Germans to supply boats. His progression was eventually impeded from 1919 when the Australian government sought to fracture his monopoly in Chinatown and Rabaul.