gration agent may deem reasonable, and by which the employer engages, upon the execution thereof, to pay or secure the amount of passage-money remaining due from such emigrant; then every such emigrant shall be held bound to the due fulfilment of such contract, in the same manner, and subject to the same penalties and punishment for non-performance, as if he or she had arrived under indenture to Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners in England, under the provisions of this Act.
X.—The provisions of this Act shall extend and apply, as far as the same can be applied, to all contracts and indentures, entered into in any part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by any emigrant brought out to this colony at the expense of any society organised or established in any part thereof for the promotion or encouragement of emigration to this colony, and to all contracts or indentures of service or apprenticeship which may be entered into by any emigrant or apprentice after their arrival here, with a view of repaying or securing to any such society the whole or any part of the passage-money of any such emigrant or apprentice.
XI.—All such indentures, or other written agreements as are hereinbefore mentioned, shall, in all courts, and before all justices within the said colony, be deemed to be valid, in whatever country they may be executed, and shall be of the like force and effect within this colony, as if they had actually been made and executed by the respective parties thereto within the same; and every such contract of service or indenture of apprenticeship as hereinbefore mentioned, executed by the immigration agent for the time being of the said colony, whether executed or not by the party to be bound thereby, or with or without his or her consent, shall be as valid and binding on such party as if the same had been executed by such party, or by any parent, guardian, or other lawful authority by or on his or her behalf, and shall subject such party for any breach thereof, or of any condition or contract therein contained, upon summary conviction by or before two or more justices, to the like fines, penalties, and punishments as are now or may be hereafter provided by law for any wilful violation of the provisions of any ordinary contract of service or indenture of apprenticeship, or for any misdemeanor, miscarriage, misconduct, or ill-behaviour of any master, servant, or apprentice within the said colony; and if any such party, whether he or she be of the full age of twenty-one years or not, shall abscond from the service of any employer to whom he or she shall be under such contract of service or indenture of apprenticeship, as hereinbefore mentioned, without lawful excuse, shall be liable for a first offence to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, at the discretion of the convicting justices, for a period not exceeding three calendar months; and for every subsequent offence to imprisonment with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding six calendar months; and the periods of such absconding and imprisonment shall not be deemed to be a part of the term of service mentioned in any such contract of service or indenture as aforesaid.
XII.—Any person who shall employ, retain, harbour, or conceal any immigrant of any of the classes or descriptions mentioned in this Act, during the time such immigrant shall be under contract to serve any employer in this colony, who shall have paid, or come under engagement to pay, the whole or any portion of the passage-money of any such immigrant, shall be liable to pay such employer at the rate of five shillings a day for every day such immigrant may be so employed, retained, harboured, or concealed by any such person, up to the full amount or sum not exceeding fifteen pounds, which such employer may have so paid, or came under engagement to pay; and every complaint for so employing, retaining, harbouring, or concealing
