Immigrant Ships
Transcribers Guild

SS Australia

I, HC Houdlette, 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 Honolulu 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 16th day of Sept 1896 before me, JJ Tobin, 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 that indicates the dispostion of the passenger.

1*, Ng Huey, 55y, Merchant, Honolulu, 5'5", Yellow, Brown, Landed

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 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) 1896 by 
 Insp's ____, (space for a name), in this case that portion of the manifest is gone. 
 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).

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.

1 The bottom portion of the manifest evidently was gone before it was filmed.  All that remains
   of the Landed stamp is "Landed."  The remainder, Inspector's name and date, are gone.