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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters from Emigration Commissioners, South Australia, 1840-1842
Author Villiers, Edward; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Torrens, Robert
Date May 1840 - 13 Jun 1842
Document Type Correspondence; Report
Reference CO 386/18
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Collected correspondence relating to colonial commissioners, including annual reports, altered bill forms, information on Colonel Light's monument, financial embarrassments and the passage of ineligible emigrants.
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
Places Australia
Ports Portsmouth, England
Ships Brightman; Waterloo; Fairfield; Royal Admiral; Siam; Java
People Gawler, Lieutenant-Colonel George; Light, Colonel William
Keywords commissionaires, emigration, immigration, finance, land, supplies, pension, wages, accounts, land sale, cartography, surveying, regulations
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK