Biographical informationBorn in China, c.1872. It has not been determined when he came to Western Australia.
Manager of Hee Kee & Co, 10 South Tce, Fremantle. In 1897 he imported three Chinese workers from Hong Kong. However, the three men were arrested on their arrival at Albany as they arrived after amendments to the Immigration Restriction Act and they were not in possession of a CEDT. Hee Kee protested on the grounds that the Immigration Restriction Act, 1897, had come into force after the men had left Hong Kong and therefore they were unable to be in possession of a CEDT.
On 29 January 1898, solicitors Stone and Burt wrote to the Colonial Secretary:
“We have the honour to inform you that we are instructed by Mr Hee Kee of South Terrace, Fremantle, draper with regard to the detention by the Government of three Chinese labourers whom he is importing from Hong Kong…It appears that Ah Ton, Ah Gay and Wah Ton, the men who have been arrested at Albany, all young men who left Hong Kong on the 16th December last, without knowing that the law in respect to the Chinese Immigrants had been amended. They arrived at Columbo on the 28th December, transhipped into the ‘Oceana’ and left Columbo for Albany on the 12th January, arrived here on the 20th when they were arrested. The Immigration Restriction Act 1897 did not come into operation until the 27th day of December last and our Clients, or the men under arrest, had no idea of the alteration in the law, or of the intention of the Legislature to alter the law.” (SRO: S675, Cons 527, 1898/0257)
The Colonial Government refused to show leniency and the men were deported shortly after their arrival.
Hee Kee continued to manage Hee Kee & Co, until around 1916. He travelled overseas between March 1910 and April 1911. Other nameHee Kee H (differentiated name)