Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

SS Australia

I, _____, Master of the SS Australia do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear that the following List or Manifest, subscribed by me, and now delivered by me to the Collector of the Customs of the Collection District of San Francisco, is a full and perfect list of all Chinese passengers taken on board the said vessel at _____ from which port said vessel has now arrived, or that have been taken on board the said vessel at any foreign port or place, and of all such passengers now on board said vessel, and that on said List is truly designated the names and other particulars, as shown by their respective certificates.So help me God. (signature)HC Houdlette
Sworn to this 5 day of Nov 1896 before me, NS Farley, Deputy Collector of Customs

Separate List or Manifest of all the Chinese Passengers taken on board the SS Australia whereof HC Houdlette is Master, from Honoluu, burthen 1937.89 tons

Columns represent: Number, Certificate Number*, Name, Age, Occupation, Last Place of Residence, Height, Complexion, Color of Eyes, Physical marks or Peculiarities and Facts of Identification*, If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts*. In addition there is a stamp across the line, on top of the information in the columns, that indicates the dispostion of the passenger.

1, Wong Ben 43y, Merchant, Honolulu, 5'6¼', Yellow, Dark, Landed Nov 5, 1896


Transcriber's Notes:

* An asterisk indicates an error on the part of the original recorder, not the transcriber,
  or calls attention to additional information in the transcriber notes.

The pages on this film are not numbered so finding a particular ship can be difficult.  
 However, there is a system of numbering the manifests that is a part of the National
 Archives file system on Chinese persons.  These numbers are included in the identification 
 of the film and reel numbers below.

The heading for this ship has been obscured on the film by another manifest that was filmed
 on the same page so most of the heading is not visible.  What is presented above is what
 regularly appears as the printed part of the heading with only the blanks that were filmed
 completed. 

The lists for Chinese passengers have a stamp that varies depending on the disposition 
of the passenger which is stamped over whatever information has been entered in the columns.
Passengers allowed to land have one of the following stamps:
 Landed Collectors order_________(blank with a month and day date written in) 1897 by 
 Insp's ____, (space for a name). 
 Landed "I.T." Transit List followed by a number.  These passengers are bound for a 
 further port.
Passengers not allowed to land have one of two different stamps:
 Habeas Corpus U.S.D.C. Case followed by a number.
 Refused Departed Per Steamer ______ (name of ship) _________ (date).

The following columns had no entry:
 Certificate Number
 Physical marks or Peculiarities and Facts of Identification
 If accredited officers of Chinese Government, state facts

According to the National Archives branch in San Bruno, California it is possible that they have
 some information on any Chinese passenger who arrived in San Francisco after 1886.