The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which limited immigration to Australia and formed the basis of the White Australia policy which sought to exclude all non-Europeans from Australia. The law granted immigration officers a wide degree of discretion to prevent individuals from entering Australia. The Act prohibited various classes of people from immigrating and provided for illegal immigrants to be deported. Because of opposition from the British government, a more explicit racial policy was avoided in the legislation, with the control mechanism for people deemed undesirable being a dictation test, which required a person seeking entry to Australia to write out a passage of fifty words dictated to them in any European language, not necessarily English, at the discretion of an immigration officer. The test was not designed to allow immigration officers to evaluate applicants on the basis of language skills, rather the language chosen was always one known beforehand that the person would fail. The initial bill was based on similar legislation in South Africa. The Act was replaced by the Migration Act 1958. Provisions of the Act Dictation test The Act provided that any would-be immigrant could be subjected to a 50-word dictation test. "Any person who when asked to do so by an officer fails to write out at dictation and sign in the presence of the officer a passage of fifty words in length in a European language directed by the officer" was deemed a "prohibited immigrant" and was to be prevented from landing. This was similar to tests previously used in Western Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania. It enabled immigration officials to exclude individuals on the basis of race without explicitly saying so. After 1903 the passage chosen was not important in itself as it was already decided the person could not enter Australia and so failure was inevitable. Although the test could theoretically be given to any person arriving in Australia, in practice it was given selectively on the basis of race, and others considered undesirables. Between 1902 and 1909, 52 people passed the test out of 1,359 who were given it. Offences The Act established a range of federal crimes relating to immigration. Illegal immigrants could be imprisoned for up to six months and then could be deported. Both the captain and the owners of ships which transported illegal immigrants to Australia could be fined