The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey

The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey — page 9
4 Chad Soon and George Chiang CHINESE HEAD TAX As the Canadian Pacific Railway was nearing completion in 1885 thanks in large part to Chinese workers the prime minister John A. Macdonald turned around and slapped a hefty tax of $50 on any Chinese person entering the country The tax was later raised to $100 then to $500 as the store my dad had was called Kwong's we decided to adopt that as the family name TWO MOTHERS Business was good and in 1904 Ng Shu Kwong arranged to bring a second wife Loo Ying Tow to Canada He paid the Chinese head tax which by then had risen to $ 500 or about two years worth of wages for an immigrant worker Mr. Kwong already had two chil- dren with his wife Rose At that time it was considered accept- able in Chinese culture to have more than one wife As the second wife Loo Ying Tow was expected to take over most of the house- work Rose or First Mother would have six children in total Loo Ying Tow gave birth to nine more including Larry He was born in Vernon on June 17 1923 the 14th of 15 siblings and the youngest son Larry was given the Chinese name Eng Kai Geong