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Title Registers of Correspondence, Orders, Statistics, etc., and Miscellaneous Labuan. Leases of Land, and Licences to Work Coal Mines
Date 31 Jan 1848 - 11 Mar 1869
Document Type Legal Papers; Financial Papers
Reference CO 386/147
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Copies of agreements between the British government and the Labuan Coal Company, China Steamship and Labuan Coal Company and Oriental Coal Company regarding the mining of coal in Labuan. Includes minuted print and draft manuscript versions of indentures, in addition to the final signed and sealed copies.
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 Labuan, Malaysia
Keywords mining, coal, surveying, business, finance, money, shipping, administration
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK