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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Australia, 1848-1849
Author Wood, C Alexander; Rogers, Frederic; Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton
Date 19 Aug 1848 - 28 Jul 1849
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/66
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters, mostly addressed to Herman Merivale, some for the attention of Lord Grey, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The correspondence mainly covers regulation, the cost of assisted migration, the selection, health, suitability and skills of migrants (including children), education, the possibility of Central Europeans migrating to Australia, and the sale of land, including the resumption of land sales in New Zealand. An index is included at the end of the volume.
Series Description This series contains original correspondence, entry books and registers of the Agent General for Emigration, the South Australian Commissioners and the Land and Emigration Commission. Amongst the miscellaneous contents are registers of births and deaths of emigrants at sea 1854-1869, lists of ships chartered 1847-1875, registers of surgeons appointed 1854-1894, and volumes of The Colonial Gazette 1838-1842.
Biographical Note / History A Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was created in 1840 to undertake the duties of two earlier and overlapping authorities which were both under the supervision of the Secretary of State. These were the Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia, established under an Act of 1834, and the Agent General for Emigration, appointed in 1837. The new commission dealt with grants of land, the outward movement of settlers, the administration of the Passengers' Acts of 1855 and 1863 and, from 1846 to 1859, the scrutiny of colonial legislation. In 1855 it became the Emigration Commission. In 1873 the administration of the Passengers' Acts was transferred to the Board of Trade. The commission's powers were gradually given up to the larger colonies as they obtained self-government, and after 1873 its only duties were the control of the importation of Indian indentured labour into sugar-producing colonies and it was abolished in 1878.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance; Motives for Emigration; Journey Conditions
Country (from) Ireland; Great Britain; Czech Republic; Poland; Germany
Country (to) Australia; New Zealand
Places New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, Australia; New Zealand
Ports Adelaide, South Australia, Port Phillip, Victoria, Sydney, New South Wales, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Nationality English; European; Polish; Czech; Irish; German
Ships Sir Edward Parry; Hyderabad; Lady Peel
People Merivale, Herman; Lord Howick (Grey, Henry); Denison, Sir William
Keywords emigration, child migration, agriculture, labour, labourer, administration, land price, land sale, eligibility, poverty, religion, Ragged Schools, workhouse, clergy, artisan, money, orphan, education, Catholicism, surgeon, agent, teacher, religion, indigenous people, claims, land grant
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK