S.S.S Poll Tax.

During the gold rush of the 19th century in New Zealand, The government thought that too much people were coming into New Zealand, and even though there were people coming from all over the world, they seemed to target Chinese families, they bought in “The Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881” which introduced a “poll tax” of £10, which back then was worth nearly around about $1,700, equal to about 10 years of their hard work. And they even lowered the Chinese people being able to enter even more by restricting the number of people coming each boat ride, about 1 person to every 10 tons of cargo. You would think that that was the worst they would see. It wasn’t. In 1896, this was changed to 1 person to 200 tons, and the tax was increased to £100 (nearly $19,000). They finally ended it in the 1930’s and Helen Clark apologized for it in the 12th February 2001.