New Zealand Chinese Collection

Collection

Collection DescriptionIn 1879, Rev Alexander Don was appointed to the position of Presbyterian missionary to Otago’s Chinese gold-seekers. Although his designated task of bringing this community to Christianity was largely unsuccessful, he created an unsurpassed legacy through his diligent and detailed documentation for more than 35 years of more than 3500 individuals, their names, occupations, place of origin, health, families and other social details. Entries in Don’s Roll of Chinese and his handwritten diaries over this period reflect the changing nature and lives of the Chinese community in New Zealand.

In 1959 Dr James Ng, a descendant of a Chinese goldmining family, began to collect documents and other information relating to the heritage of the New Zealand Chinese Community. Significant items include the Roll of Chinese and Don’s four remaining handwritten diaries. These items, along with Dr Ng’s research notes for his 4 volume publication Windows on a Chinese Past, papers (including unpublished Chinese community newsletters) and at least 300 letters in Cantonese and English form the Ng New Zealand Chinese Heritage Collection, now held by the Presbyterian Research Centre. This Collection is listed on the UNESCO New Zealand Memory of the World Register.

Items below are just some of the highlights from this collection - please use the search bar to locate more.

Collection SummaryPhotographs and documents relating to Chinese New Zealanders with links to the Otago Goldfields. Last edited by: Jane Thomsen

Images

Sunk 'Cairntroldlie' Gold Dredge

Unknown Building

Rev Mawson At A Communal Hut

Chinese Arch Erected In Dundas For Royal Visit in 1901

Portrait of Yeung Tsung

Unidentified Hydraulic Sluicing And Elevating Claim

Unknown Commercial Building

The Home Of Mr. And Mrs. Gay Tans

Hydraulic Sluicing In Central Otago

Lok Loong And G. H. McNeur Sluicing, Main Gully, Naseby

Hydraulic Sluicing And Elevating In Spec Gully, Mt Ida

Sluicing John Seffer's Claim, Moke Creek, 1901

Chinese Gold Miner's Stone Homestead

Joe Shum's Snow Covered Rural Hut

Unidentified Chinese Gold Miners Water Sluicing Their Claim

Sluicing A claim

Old Chinese Man

Rev Alexander Don And Two Chinese Men Outside A Dwelling

Two Unidentified Elderly Chinese Gold Miners

A Chinese Man and Next To His Home By A River

Group of "Nine" Unknown Chinese Men Standing Outside A Merchant's Store

Ch'aa Ts'aan Yam (Hakka)

Chinese Church Plaque

Publications

The Presbyterian Church of New Zealand and the Chinese

Person

McNeur, George Hunter

Presbyterian Research Centre

Menu

New Zealand Chinese Collection