The Three Colonies of Australia/Appendix
APPENDIX.
The Legislative Council of New South Wales, on the recommendation of the Committee (whose report we give below, I.), have passed an Act (which we also give, II.), rendering it lawful to make contracts with emigrants in this or any other country,—to bind them to work for wages settled in Europe—to repay the cost of their passage to Australia—to compel emigrants sent out by the Emigration Commissioners to repay part of their passage money—to apprentice boys and girls above the age of thirteen for four years, at £5 for two years, and £10 for two years, with board.
The principle that emigrants should repay part or all the cost of their passage is sound, but whether the mode proposed by the Parliament of New South Wales will work, we may be permitted to doubt.
Attempts to make labourers or mechanics work for less than current wages have always failed in this country, and so have contracts binding men to serve a particular master in a skilled trade.
If the Council had made the passage-money paid by the colony a debt due by the emigrant, that would have been reasonable; but to bind a man in Europe to serve a master he has never seen, in an employment he has never practised, for wages to be fixed by the master, is to sow the seeds of perpetual litigation and discontent,—especially as the magistrates who will have to decide the disputes are inevitably employers of labour; and no man is a safe judge in his own cause.
In like manner the theory of apprenticing minors is reasonable, but this legislation is one-sided.
The wages will often be inadequate, and no provision is made in the Act for the inspection or protection of those apprenticed orphans. There may be Mrs. Sloanes in Australia as well as in England.
We feel for the hard position of the great stockowners and other employers of labour in the difficult position in which they are placed by the labour attraction of the gold-fields, but we venture to hint that the only law which will bind the labourer to his employer under such circumstances, is the law of kindness. "One man can lead the ox to water; a hundred cannot make him drink."
I.
The number of applications which are now pouring in upon the Emigration Commissioners for passages to this colony, under the existing regulations, is so great, that it is evident the territorial revenue as at present administered can no longer of itself sustain the charge, nor can it supply an immigration at all commensurate with the large and growing requirements of the colony. The fact, too, that the immigrants who are thus introduced at the public expense, are under no obligation to embark on their arrival in the ordinary industrial pursuits of the colony, which was the primary object of their introduction, and is the sole ground upon which any expenditure of the public revenue for such an object can be justified, renders it both just and necessary that they should not only be compelled, as a preliminary measure, to enter into such an engagement in England for a term of not less than two years, but that they should also bind themselves to repay, by equal yearly instalments, a certain sum towards their passage-money, which your committee have fixed at £13. It is considered that this amount ought to be repaid by all statute adults, that is, by all persons above fourteen years of age, because they can earn wages which will enable them to repay without difficulty; but no contributions will be required from the mothers of families, and children under that age. Whilst it is obviously but just that the immigrant who is likely to benefit so largely by being brought to this colony at the public expense, should be compelled to refund this stipulated amount to the public treasury on the one hand, it has been deemed equitable on the other hand, first, that he should be allowed on his arrival to repay (if he can) his passage-money; second, that for a certain short period after his arrival here (to be fixed by public regulation) he shall be permitted to choose his employer, so as to enable him to obtain the current rate of wages; and third, that after serving an employer for one year he shall be at liberty to pay any balance of passage-money due by him, on giving three months' notice to his employer, and so terminate his agreement. To carry out the details of this new system, it will be necessary that the immigrant, in England, should indent himself in England to the immigration agent in the colony, and that this officer again should have power to bind him by indenture here to any competent employer, so as to carry these regulations into effect. For this purpose a local enactment will be necessary, which your committee will prepare.
Your committee further recommend, that the Immigration Commissioners should be instructed, as a general rule in the distribution of passages by emigrant vessels, to give a preference to emigrants hired under indenture in England by colonial employers, or for them by their English agents, so long as they belong to any enumerated classes now eligible for bounty emigration; but with an understanding, nevertheless, that they are to be subject to the repayment out of their wages, of the amount of passage-money, viz., £13, thus fixed by your committee.
As some misunderstanding seems to exist in England as to the necessity that such indenture should be stamped, it may be as well here to observe, that, by the 9th Geo. IV., cap. 83, all indentures of this sort are expressly exempt from the stamp duty; and to make this exception the more certain, a clause to the like effect will be introduced into the legislative measure which will be required to carry out these recommendations.
Your committee having learnt by advices lately received from England, that there are large numbers of boys and girls of good character, of thirteen years of age and upwards, in the orphan schools and other eleemosynary establishments of the United Kingdom, towards whose emigration to this colony the guardians and other managers of such establishments would contribute largely out of parochial or other funds,—with a view as well to the relief of such establishments from the cost of their maintenance, as to the advantageous settlement of the apprentices themselves in the colony, recommend that whenever any such boys or girls are under indenture to the immigration agent of this colony for the time being, to serve an apprenticeship of four years, the two first for wages at the rate of £5 a year, and the two last for wages at the rate of £10 a year, a contribution of at a rate not exceeding £8 for statute adults, should be made towards their passage-money from the territorial revenue, and be repaid by the employer at the time the apprentice is indented to him by the immigration agent, provided the remainder of their passage-money and their outfit be contributed by the guardians or other managers of any such institutions at home.
The emigrants of the enumerated classes, and to whom your committee recommend that passages should be furnished under the foregoing stipulations as to indenture and repayment, are as follows:—
| Amount to be paid in advance in England. | Amount to be paid in the Colony out of their earnings. | |||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Married agricultural labourers, shepherds, herdsmen, miners, and other males of the labouring classes generally, not exceeding 45 years of age | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Exceeding 45 and under 50 years of age | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Exceeding 50 years of age | 11 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Unmarried males of any of the above classes, not exceeding 40 years of age | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Unmarried females, farm and domestic servants, not exceeding 35 years of age | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Country mechanics, such as blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, masons, sawyers, wheelwrights, and gardeners, under 45 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Above 45 and not exceeding 50 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Above 50 | 15 | 0 | 0 | |||
No payment will be required for the wives of persons of the above classes, or any of their children who may be under the age of 14 years; all children above that age must be paid for as statute adults.
Your committee, in thus recommending a complete alteration in the present bounty system, feel that a new era has arisen in the whole of the colonies forming the Australian group, which renders them the most eligible of all the countries in the globe as a field for immigration, not from the United Kingdom alone but from all Europe; that the necessity, therefore, which has hitherto existed to hold out extraordinary inducements to intending emigrants to select these colonies as a future home, has entirely ceased; that all future immigration therefore should, if its cost be not in the first instance defrayed out of the funds of the immigrants themselves, be at least for the most part of a self-supporting character, so as to relieve that branch of our public revenue which has hitherto been almost exclusively devoted to this object from this absorbing charge; and to enable it hereafter to be devoted to those internal improvements which the continued progress of population and civilisation will render indispensable: and that in order to carry out these views, the present system of bounty emigration from the mother country should be abolished, and all future immigration, to this colony at least, be established on that self-supporting, or nearly self-supporting, basis which is indicated in this Report, unless some unforeseen necessity for a deviation from it should arise.
As to the following resolutions referred to this committee on the motion of Mr. Donaldson—
1st.—That this House considers that a sum of not less than £10,000 out of the amount now in course of transmission to England by the Governor-General, might with great propriety be applied in furtherance of the object of the Family Colonisation Loan Society, in such manner as might be arranged between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the London Committee of this Society, whether by way of guarantee funds, or by actual appropriation, as might be decided on.
2nd.—This House being of opinion that the Family Colonisation Loan Society, established by Mrs. Chisholm, and represented in London by a Committee consisting of the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury and others, forms a valuable adjunct to the other means employed for the promotion of emigration of a good character to the Australian colonies.
Your committee propose that the provisions of the intended local enactment shall be made applicable to emigrants brought out under the regulations of this society.
Your committee have no hesitation in recommending these resolutions for the adoption of your honourable House, and that the sum of £10,000 out of the amount now in course of transmission to England for emigration purposes, be held at the disposal of the London Committee of the Colonisation Loan Society, presided over by the Earl of Shaftesbury.
With regard to the report from the immigration agent for 1851, and the despatches from the Secretary of State, referred to your committee, they are at present only enabled to observe that any recommendations or regulations suggested in them which may be at variance with any of the suggestions of your committee, which refer to the suppression of the present bounty system and the substitution in its stead of the more largely self-supporting system recommended in this report, should give way to the views of your committee on this most important subject.
W. C. WENTWORTH, Chairman.
Legislative Council Chambers,
Sydney, 1st October, 1852.
II.
Whereas, the present system of bounty emigration has become highly burdensome and impolitic, by reason that the emigrants sent out under that system, at the cost of the territorial revenue, are not required, on their arrival in this colony, to take service, or to repay any portion of the public money thus expended in providing them with a passage to this colony, and it is expedient that the said system should be reformed: Be it therefore enacted, by His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council of the said Colony, as follows:
I.—Every male of or above the age of fourteen years, and every unmarried female of or above that age, who shall hereafter be provided with a passage as an emigrant to this colony by Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners, and who shall not pay the "full cost of his or her passage, previously to his or her embarkation to this colony, or the embarkation of the wife or family of any such male emigrant, shall, before obtaining an authority for such embarkation, sign an indenture in the form or to the effect set forth in the Schedule A to this Act annexed: Provided that no emigrant of the class of country mechanics shall be required or bound to pay more than the sum of fifteen pounds sterling for his passage, inclusive of any deposit made by him in the United Kingdom under any regulation then in force, and that no other class of emigrants shall be required or bound to pay more than the sum of thirteen pounds sterling for his or her said passage, inclusive as aforesaid.
II.—If any immigrant so under indenture shall, on his or her arrival in the colony, or within any period thereafter to be prescribed by the immigration agent in this colony for the time being, not exceeding fourteen days, pay to such immigration agent, on behalf of the government, the full sum set against his or her name in the said indenture, every such indenture shall thereupon be cancelled, so far as it relates to every immigrant paying such sum.
III.—The immigration agent for the time being, or any person deputed by him for that purpose, with the approbation of the governor, shall have authority, with or without the consent of any such immigrant, not so paying his or her passage-money, or any balance due therefor, to make and sign in his or her name, and on his or her behalf, a contract of service with any competent employer for the term of two years, to be computed from the day on which such contract is made and signed, by an agreement in the form or to the effect in Schedule B to this Act appended; and every such employer shall thereupon pay into the hands of such immigration agent, for the use of the government of the colony, half the amount then due to the government for the passage of every immigrant so bound; and such employer shall undertake to pay the balance of the passage-money required by the regulations from such immigrant, at or before the expiration of twelve calendar months from the making of such contract; such employer being hereby authorised to deduct such payments, so to be made, on behalf of any such immigrant, from his or her wages, as such wages accrue or become due, by eight equal deductions from the same, during such term of two years.
IV.—Every immigrant serving an employer under any such contract, may, at any time after the expiration of the first year, cancel the same, by giving such employer three calendar months' notice thereof, in writing, and by paying such employer the amount of money then remaining due for his or her passage.
V.—It shall be lawful for any artificer, domestic servant, handicraftsman, mechanic, gardener, servant in husbandry, shepherd, herdsman, wool-sorter, coachman, groom, vine-dresser, or other labourer, and also for any male or female, being above the age of eighteen years, and for all and every other classes and class of labourers, workmen, tradesmen, or artificers, whether they be subjects of Her Majesty or of any foreign country, by indenture or other agreement duly executed, to contract with any person or persons about to proceed to or actually resident in this colony, or with the agent or agents of any such person or persons in the said colony, for any period not exceeding the full term of five years.
VI.—Every emigrant already under indenture, or hereafter contracting, by indenture or otherwise, to serve any employer in this colony, shall be liable to repay to such employer, any sum which he or she may contract with such employer, or with any agent of such employer, to repay, for whatever object advanced, and whether his or her passage were paid for in the first instance by such employer, or were paid by the said Emigration Commissioners out of the public funds of this colony, and repaid or secured by such employer to such commissioners, or to the immigration agent of the said colony.
VII.—It shall be competent to Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners by a written instrument, in the form or to the effect in Schedule C to this Act appended, to engage on behalf of the immigration agent of this colony for the time being, any boy or girl of and above the age of thirteen years, from any orphan or other public school or eleemosynary establishment in any part of the United Kingdom, or from any parishes or boards of guardians, or parents or guardians willing to contribute at the rate fixed by the regulations towards their passage to this colony; and the said commissioners shall be at liberty, if they shall see fit, to contribute the remainder of their passage-money not exceeding for any such boy or girl the sum of eight pounds sterling out of any fund belonging to the said colony at their disposal.
VIII.—Such boys and girls, on their arrival in the colony, may be bound by the immigration agent for the time being, by indenture, in the form or to the effect in Schedule D to this Act appended, to proper employers, who, upon the execution of any such indenture, shall pay the balance of the passage-money due to the government for such boys and girls; and shall enter into the agreement for their due maintenance and support, and also for the payment to them of wages at the rates and times in the said indenture mentioned.
IX.—If any owner or master of any ship or vessel shall contract, in writing, with any emigrant, either from the United Kingdom, or from any foreign country, for his or her conveyance to any port in this colony, and any such emigrant shall engage either to pay any portion of his or her passage-money, not exceeding ten pounds, within six days after his or her arrival, or to execute within the same period, with the concurrence of the emigration agent of this colony for the time being, or his deputy, an indenture of service for two years, to some competent employer, at such rates of wages as may be agreed upon between the parties, or as the immigration 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 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 thereof, we shall be respectively at liberty, on giving our respective employers three calendar months' previous notice, to put an end to such contract and service by paying up the balance of the said sums then due by us for our passage.
Witness
B.
Memorandum of Agreement made this day between A. B., Esq., the immigration agent of this colony for the time being of the first part, C. D., a free immigrant, per ship , of the second part, and E. F., of , of the third part. The said C. D. engages to serve the said E. F. as a and otherwise to make generally useful for the term of two years, to be computed from the date hereof; and also to obey all the said E. F.'s or his or her overseer's or authorised agent's lawful and reasonable commands during that period; in consideration of which services the said E. F. doth hereby agree to pay the said C. D. wages, at the rate of pounds shillings (£) per annum, payable quarterly, to provide him (or her) with the understated rations weekly, and to defray the expense of his (or her) conveyance to the place at which he (or she) is to be employed, it being always understood that the said E. F. is to be at liberty to deduct from any wages that may accrue or become due to the said C. D., by eight equal quarterly deductions, the sum of £ being the full sum due by the said C. D. to the government of this colony for his or her passage thereto.
| Beef or Mutton | 10lbs. |
| Flour | 10lbs. |
| Sugar | 2lbs. |
| Tea | ¼lb. |
And the said E. F. hereby agrees to pay to the said immigration agent immediately upon the execution of this memorandum the sum of £ being one-half of the amount of passage-money due by the said C. D. to the said government, and to pay the residue thereof to the said A. B. or to such other person as may then be the immigration agent for the time being, at the end of one year from the date hereof.
| (To be Signed) | A. B., Immigration Agent. | |
| C. D. | ||
| or | ||
| (A. B. on behalf of C. D.) | ||
| E. F. | ||
| Witness |
C.
We the undersigned or undernamed parties severally agree and bind urselves, with the consent of all or any persons now in authority over us, to serve any employers to whom we may be respectively bound by the immigration agent for the time being of the colony of New South Wales, as apprentices, for the term or period of four years, to be computed from the date of our apprenticeship in the said colony, for such wages or remuneration, after payment by such employers of the sums due for our passages to the said colony, as to the said Immigration Agent may seem meet; and we do hereby authorise and empower him, or his deputy duly appointed with the approval of the government of the said colony, to bind us out as such apprentices, immediately upon or at any time after our arrival in the said colony.
Witness
D.
Indenture of Apprenticeship made this day of A.D. between A. B., immigration agent for the colony of New South Wales, or C. D., his deputy (as the case may be), of the first part, E. F., an immigrant (male or female as the case may be) per ship , being of the age of years, of the second part, and G. H., of , of the third part. The said A. B. (or C. D.) doth hereby bind the said E. F. to the said G. H. as an apprentice in the trade or calling of (here describe particular occupation), and otherwise to make (himself or herself as the case may be) generally useful for the term of four years, and also to obey all the said G. H.'s lawful and reasonable commands, or those of (his or her) authorised agent, during that period; in consideration of which services the said G. H. hereby agrees to pay the said party of the second part wages quarterly, at the rate of five pounds per year for the first two years, and at the rate of ten pounds per year for the residue of the said term, and to teach or cause (him or her, as the case may be) to be taught such trade or calling during the said term; and to provide (him or her, as the case may be) with lodging, and either with board, or a weekly ration (at the option of the said G. H.) consisting of
10 lbs. of flour,
10 lbs. of meat,
2 lbs. of sugar,
¼ lb. of tea.
In witness whereof the said A. B., as such immigration agent as aforesaid, or the said C. D. (as deputy to such immigration agent), for and on behalf of himself and the said E. F., and also the said G. H., have affixed their names and seals to this Indenture of Apprenticeship.
(l. s.)
(l. s.)
Witness