Chinese Quarter, Victoria, British Columbia, 1886.
These buildings housed unemployed Chinese after 1885. Though the Chinese community of Victoria tried to minister to the unemployed navvies by setting up soup kitchens and shelters, the Dominion government did nothing for them, listening to those who favoured exclusion. In 1885, after a second investigation, the Macdonald government placed a $50 head tax on incoming Chinese. Some Victoria residents complained about the condition of Chinatown, but one cynical witness, appearing before the second investigation, declared: "I care nothing about the filth of Chinatown... These mud sills are at the bottom of our success".
