Day 142: A day of contrasts...

Day 142: ...a rose to mothballs

Today I headed back to the Archives to continue digging in the 1890s. Actually finished a couple of bundles and I'm working my way through the rest. Still very much in the area of negotiations over migration of Japanese labourers and artisans versus people with 'commercial purpose'; much to-ing and fro-ing between Brisbane and London over the Anglo-Japanese commerce treaty. 

Japanese migrant labour in the 1890s became quite a political issue, bureaucrats in Brisbane wanted restrictions because 'constituents in the northern districts' wanted restrictions too; meanwhile employers such as Bowden Bros and Burns Philp wanted Japanese labourers were preferred over others because of their skill...

But I'm glad I started the day with this rose, it's not a perfect rose, like some of the others we've seen on the rose bush, but the sun hit it briefly and it seemed like a lovely day.

Every rose deserves its chance

Helpful for later when it came for dealing with some of the material in the archives. For example, the Commissioner of Police in 1897 so confidently declared that 115 of the 116 Japanese women in Queensland at that time were earning a living from prostitution. Really? I need to investigate further. 

There's some interesting material in there, so many stories, still, to be told. Was nice to get home where there was some stillness...the moth just appeared, just in time to bring me back to today.

At rest...

More to investigate tomorrow. 

[Camera : iPhone 4S, 9.03am, 5.39pm]