Page:The three colonies of Australia.djvu/424

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
402
APPENDIX.

any such immigrant, may be heard and determined in a summary way before any two justices of the peace, who, in addition to any damages they may award, by virtue of this Act, may give the complainant full costs: Provided always, that if upon the hearing of any information under this section any person so employing, retaining, harbouring, or concealing any such immigrant, shall prove to the satisfaction of the justices hearing the same, that he has not been guilty of undue negligence, such information shall be thereupon dismissed.

XIII.—Every indenture or other written agreement officially transmitted to the immigration agent of this colony, by Her Majesty's Commissioners for Emigration in England, shall be conclusive evidence in any court or before any justices, of the signature or consent of the several parties thereto, whose names are therein or thereunder written or mentioned, and shall require no further proof of its authenticity than its production in any such court, or before any justices, by or on behalf of such immigration agent, or by or on behalf of the employer of any such immigrant; and any certificate under the hand of the said immigration agent that any such immigrant came out as such in any vessel bringing out assisted immigrants, shall be receivable in any court, or before any justices, and shall be conclusive as to the identity of such immigrant, and as to all the facts therein certified to be true.




SCHEDULES REFERRED TO.

A.

We whose names are severally hereunder written, in consideration of a passage being provided for us and (as the case may be) our respective wives and families by Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners, at the expense of the colony of New South Wales, severally bind ourselves either to repay to the immigration agent of that colony, for the time being, the sums set against our respective names, in sterling British money, within fourteen days after our arrival in the said colony, or to take service with any employer in the said colony, with whom we may agree during that period and who shall be approved of by the said immigration agent, and shall forthwith pay to him one-half of the sums set against our names respectively, and shall bind himself to pay the residue thereof to the immigration agent for the time being in twelve calendar months, or within any shorter period of the date of employment. And in default of our making any such agreement with the consent of the said immigration agent, and in the form prescribed by law or the regulations of the government, we hereby agree and bind ourselves to take such other employment and to accept such wages as the said immigration agent may procure for us respectively; and we hereby, respectively, give him full power and authority, with or without our future consent, to sign on our behalf a contract of service with any employer whom he may select on our behalf, for the term of two years, to be computed from the date of such contract, it being always understood that any such employer shall be at liberty to deduct from any wages that may accrue or become due to us respectively during the said term, at the rate of one-eighth of the sums so set against our respective names in each three calendar months of such service; and further, that at any time after the expiration of the first year