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Title Entry-Books of Correspondence: Letters to the Colonial Office. West Indies, General, 1868-1876
Author Murdoch, Thomas William Clinton; Walcott, Stephen
Date 2 Jan 1868 - 20 Dec 1876
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/93
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of out-letters regarding indentured labour from India and China, addressed to R. G. W. Herbert and Frederic Rogers, some for the attention of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The correspondence covers misconduct of various officers, regulations, the conditions on board ships and in the colonies (especially in relation to mortality rates), the relative numbers of male and female migrants, liberated Africans, the supposed suitability of Chinese and Indian labourers for certain work, terms of contracts, the regulation of migration agents, financial questions, and the optimal 'season' for migration. 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; Journey Conditions; Departures: Port Conditions and Organisation; Remigration
Country (from) China; India; Malta; Barbados; Madeira
Country (to) St Lucia; St Vincent; Jamaica; British Guiana; Anguilla; Trinidad; Cuba; St Croix; Mauritius
Places London, England; Cape of Good Hope; Natal; St Helena
Ports Hong Kong, Amoy, Guangzhou, China; Madras, Calcutta, India
Nationality Indian; Chinese; Asian; Maltese; Spanish; African; European
Ships Ganges; Trevelyan; Mofussilite; Hyderabad; Pandora; Clyde; Corona; Surrey; Sir Henry Lawrence; Rohilla; Atalanta; Forfarshire; Hera; Hereford
People Rogers, Frederic; Lord Carnarvon (Herbert, Henry Howard Molyneux); Herbert, Sir Robert George Wyndham; Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, Richard); Lord Kimberley (Wodehouse, John); Alcock, Sir Rutherford
Keywords shipping, death, diplomacy, female emigration, sugar, industry, indentured labour, agriculture, legislation, administration, assisted emigration, regulations, surgeon, money, finance, agriculture, agent, medical examination, mining, return passage, labour, labourer, remittance, contract, coolie, Liberated Africans
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK