Editing Richard Seddon (section)

===Immigration===
{{Main|New Zealand head tax}}
Seddon was firmly opposed [[Chinese people|Chinese]] immigration to New Zealand, harbouring an ethnic prejudice against them stemming from his years in the goldfields.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Richard Seddon {{!}} NZHistory, New Zealand history online|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/richard-seddon|access-date=2021-12-25|website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref>

Although Chinese immigrants were invited to New Zealand by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, prejudice against them quickly led to calls for restrictions on immigration. Following the example of anti-Chinese poll taxes enacted by California in 1852 and by Australian states in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, [[John Hall (New Zealand)|John Hall]]'s government passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1881. This imposed a £10 tax per Chinese person entering New Zealand, and permitted only one Chinese immigrant for every 10 tons of cargo. Richard Seddon's government increased the tax to £100 per head in 1896 ($20,990 in modern [[New Zealand dollar]]s), and tightened the other restriction to only one Chinese immigrant for every 200 tons of cargo.

Seddon compared Chinese people to monkeys, and so used the [[Yellow Peril]] conspiracy theory to promote [[Racialism|racialist]] politics in New Zealand. In 1879, in his first political speech, Seddon said that New Zealand did not wish her shores "deluged with Asiatic Tartars. I would sooner address white men than these Chinese. You can't talk to them, you can't reason with them. All you can get from them is 'No savvy'."<ref name=":1">Burdon, Randal Mathews. ''King Dick: A Biography of Richard John Seddon'', Whitcombe & Tombs, 1955, p.43.</ref>