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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. Victoria, 1854-1871
Author Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Walcott, Stephen; Rogers, Frederic; Wood, C Alexander
Date 3 Jan 1854 - 15 Dec 1871
Document Type Correspondence; Financial Papers; Legal Papers
Reference CO 386/80
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters, mostly covering guano mining, colonial legislation (especially in relation to land), colonial finances, shipping, and journey conditions. 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; Arrivals: Ports and Early Experiences; Journey Conditions; Ships and Shipping Lines
Country (from) China; Great Britain
Country (to) Australia; Starbuck Island; Maldon Island; Cook Islands; Tahiti
Ports Geelong, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Gravesend, Liverpool, England
Nationality English; Chinese; European; Asian
Ships Caribbean; Sir Fowell Buxton; Ontario; Conway; Great Britain; Sussex; Hope; Guiding Star; Indian Ocean; Oliver Lang; Persia; Harbinger; Atalanta; Netherby
People Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick; Merivale, Herman; Holland, H F; Herbert, R G W; Duke of Newcastle (Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham); Baron Taunton (Labouchere, Henry); Lord Kimberley (Wodehouse, John); Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, Richard)
Keywords shipwreck, land, legislation, legislature, land sale, land grant, crown lands, land claim, money, finance, mining, emigration, labour, labourer, child migration, female emigration, statistics, shipping, regulations, surgeon, guano, indentured labour, Coolie, insanity, unemployment, agent, remittance, wages, victualling, gold, journey conditions, death, agriculture, farming, transportation
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK