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Title Registers of Correspondence, Orders, Statistics, etc., and Miscellaneous Land Orders and Land Certificates
Date 12 Sep 1840 - 10 Jan 1874
Document Type Correspondence
Reference CO 386/143
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name Colonial Office: Land and Emigration Commission, etc.
Description Register recording land orders, sales and related correspondence. An index at the front is set out by colony. The register records the name of the recipient, their residence, numbers of sections and acres applied for and received, who signed the order, the date of the colonial agent's receipt, date of delivery, to whom it was delivered, and an acknowledgement of the Land Order receipt.
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; Colonisation Companies and Emigration Societies
Country (from) Great Britain
Country (to) Australia; Sri Lanka; Falkland Islands; New Zealand; South Africa
Places England; New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Australia; Otago, New Zealand; Natal, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Ports Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia
Nationality English; European
People Walcott, Stephen; Elliot, Sir Thomas Frederick
Keywords land, administration, emigration, colony, colonisation, land sale, allotments, government, finance, agent, government, purchase agreement, accounts
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK