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Unsound Minds’ from Populating the British World Australasian Immigration Control & Mental Illness 1830S —1920S

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Unsound Minds’ from Populating the British World Australasian Immigration Control & Mental Illness 1830S —1920S Preventing ‘Unsound Minds’ From Populating the British World Australasian Immigration Control & Mental Illness 1830s —1920s Jennifer S. Kain PhD May 2015 Preventing ‘Unsound Minds’ From Populating the British World Australasian Immigration Control & Mental Illness 1830s —1920s Jennifer S. Kain A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences May 2015 Abstract This thesis examines the bureaucratic controls designed to restrict the entry of migrants perceived to be ‘mentally ill’ into New Zealand and Australia in the period between the 1830s and 1920s. It is the first study to analyse the evolution of these practices in this region and timeframe. It addresses a gap in the current literature because it explores the tensions that emerged when officials tried to implement government policy. This study sheds new light on the actions, motivations and ideologies of the British and Australasian officials who were responsible for managing and policing immigration. While there were attempts to coordinate the work of border officials, this proved very difficult to achieve in practice: some immigration controllers were, for instance, receptive to the theories that were coming out of international debates about border control, others retained a parochial perspective. The thesis argues that every attempt to systematise border management failed. The regulation of the broad spectrum of ‘mental illness’ was a messy affair: officials struggled with ill-defined terminology and a lack of practical instructions so tensions and misunderstandings existed across local, national and metropolitan levels. Based on extensive research in British, New Zealand and Australian archives, this study reveals the barriers that were created to prevent those deemed ‘mentally ill’ from migrating to regions imagined as ‘Greater Britain’. It shows how judgements about an individual’s state of mind were made in a number of locales: in Britain; on the voyage itself; and at the Australasian borders. This thesis, by exploring the disordered nature of immigration control, will add a new perspective to the existing scholarship on transnational immigration legislation and Australasian asylum studies. The in-depth examination of border control systems also contributes to our understanding of the links between migration and illness in the British world during this period. i ii Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... i List of Tables ................................................................................................................ v List of Process Diagrams ............................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... ix Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ xiii Introduction: Migration, Mental Illness and the British World 1830s—1920s ................ 1 Scope and Terminology ................................................................................................ 3 Key Historiography .................................................................................................... 10 Sources and Methodology .......................................................................................... 16 Aims and Structure ..................................................................................................... 20 Chapter One: Administering the British World .............................................................. 27 Political Administration 1820s to 1920s .................................................................... 29 British World Structures ............................................................................................. 40 Categorising Worthiness ............................................................................................ 52 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 62 Chapter Two: Populating the British World 1830s—1860s ........................................... 64 Recruiting Good Characters ....................................................................................... 66 Enforcing Good Conduct ............................................................................................ 73 Seeking Recompense for Public Charges ................................................................... 78 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 91 Chapter Three: Funding ‘Unsound Minds’, New Zealand 1870—1876 ........................ 94 The Agent-General as Migrant Selector ..................................................................... 96 ‘Half Scamps, Half-Lunatics’: Imbecile Passengers Act 1873 ................................ 105 Repatriating the ‘Knowingly Insane’ ....................................................................... 115 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 131 Chapter Four: Parochial Border Controls in a Globalising World: New Zealand 1876— 1899 .............................................................................................................................. 133 Assisted Immigration 1876–1883 ............................................................................. 135 Imbeciles Passengers Act 1879-1899: Operations and Results ................................ 145 Degeneration and Border Control ............................................................................ 162 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 177 Chapter Five: Prohibiting ‘Idiots’ & ‘Insane’, Immigration Acts 1899—1912 ........... 180 The Transnational Dimension: The Insane Become Prohibited ............................... 183 Debating Which Types to Prohibit ........................................................................... 186 Transnational Comparisons: Policy Translated into Practice ................................... 198 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 216 iii Chapter Six: Standardising Defence Lines, Eugenics & Border Control 1912—1920 218 William Perrin Norris: Transnational Medical Reformer ........................................ 221 Reinforcing Border Controls .................................................................................... 229 Eugenic Border Controls, New Zealand and Australia 1913—1920 ....................... 263 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 276 Chapter 7: Insufficient Mental Equipment ................................................................... 279 Systematic Emigration to Empire Settlement: Plus ça Change ............................... 281 Sir Neville Howse:‘One of the greatest organising brains in the medical service’ .. 287 From ‘Half-Scamps, Half-Lunatics’ to the ‘Temperamentally Unsuitable’ ............ 299 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 311 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 313 Appendices ................................................................................................................... 320 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 327 Primary Sources ........................................................................................................ 327 Books ................................................................................................................ 327 Chapters in Books and Articles in Journals ...................................................... 328 Conference Proceedings ................................................................................... 329 Legislation ........................................................................................................ 329 Miscellaneous ................................................................................................... 331 National Archives Files .................................................................................... 331 Newspapers ....................................................................................................... 336 Parliamentary Papers ........................................................................................ 339 Printed Company Records ................................................................................ 345 Printed Government Records............................................................................ 346 Secondary Sources .................................................................................................... 347 Books ................................................................................................................ 347 Chapters
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