into Māori land led to a series of armed conflicts and mass land confiscations in the 1860s, as well as legislative efforts to assimilate the Māori into colonial legal systems. Ambiguous wording in the Treaty of Waitangi raised uncertainty as to whether they were actually granted subjecthood or merely the rights of that status; the Native Rights Act 1865 was enacted to affirm their British subject status and clarify the colonial judiciary's legal authority over them. Franchise qualification was dependent on an individual owning land, but Māori land was customarily held in communal title rather than by freehold title under a single person's ownership. Māori electorates in the General Assembly were created in 1867 as a temporary measure while Māori land was gradually converted into titles recognisable in colonial law, and this special representation was later made permanent in 1876. Male subjects of partial Māori descent were assigned to an electorate based on their ancestry; those who were more than half-Māori were assigned to the Māori electoral roll, and those who had more non-Māori lineage were assigned to the general roll. Men who were exactly half-Māori could vote in either or both electorates. Discriminatory policies against Chinese migrants Chinese immigration to New Zealand began in the 1860s during the West Coast Gold Rush. Growing hostility and anti-Chinese sentiment along with the rise of colonial nationalism led to a concerted movement within the legislature to restrict Chinese immigration. At least 20 bills written to curb Chinese migration were introduced in the House of Representatives from 1879 to 1920. The first of these to pass was the Chinese Immigrants Act 1881, which limited the number of Chinese migrants who could land in New Zealand to one per ten tons of cargo and imposed a £10 head tax on every Chinese person who entered the colony. These restrictions were tightened to one migrant per 100 tons in 1888, then to one per 200 tons in 1896. China, Hong Kong, Mauritius, and the islands of modern Indonesia were declared to be "infected places" under the Public Health Act 1876; ships originating from or stopping in one of these territories, or those that allowed any person or cargo coming from or passing through those areas were subject to strict quarantine on their arrival in New Zealand. The head tax was increased to £100 in 1896, and would not be abolished until 1944. Chinese residents were