Emigration to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land

The following document has just been issued from the Colonial Office:--

Downing street, April 6, 1834. Numerous applicants have been received from persons desirous of emigrating to New South Wales or Van Dieman's Land, who, after stating their inability to defray the whole charge of their conveyance, solicit aid for that purpose, on condition of repaying the same out of their earnings in the colony where they propose to settle. His Majesty's government has sanctioned the appropriate of a limited sum out of the colonial revenues of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, to assist the private funds of such emigrants as may appear likely to earn the means of repayig that aid, and to become useful settlers. The following are the regulations under which this induglence will be dispensed:--

No advance will be made except to young and married agricultural labourers, who intend taking their wives and families with them : and a strict inquiry will be instituted into their character and habits of industry, before the assistance they solicit will be granted to them.

No one family will be allowed an advance exceeding t20; and it will be useful therefore for parties, who may not possess the remainder of the sum requisite for defraying the expense of their passage, to apply for assistance.

Every person desirous of receiving the proposed advance must fill up, and send back to the Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, the return hereto annexed. If the information contained in this return, and the answers to the inquiries which may be addressed to the parties who certify the correctness of the return, shall be considered satisfactory, the applicant will receive notice to that effect. He may then proceed to make his agreement with the owners or masters of ships proceeding to New South Wales or Van Diemen's land, and as soon as any ship-owner or master shall notify (in a form which will be provided for that purpose) that the emigrant has taken the other necessary steps for engaging his passage, and order will be granted for the payment in the colony, of t20 to the agent or master of the vessel in which this emigrant may arrive. The emigrant will of course be able to[?] ob-[?] tain a corresponding deduction from the amount[?] [?] paid by himself in this country.

The order for payment will be entrusted [?] ter of the vessel in which the emigrants to pro[?] and will consist of a sealed dispatch to the governor, containing the name and description of the party on whose account the money is to be paid, and encolosing a promissory note, which he will be required to sign in acknowledgement of his debt ; which note must be witnessed by the captain and chief mate of the vessel. But arrangements will be made, by which the payment of this order will not take place in the colony until the captain shall have produced the parties, on whose account it is to be made, before the officer appointed for that purpose, and they shall have entered into a fresh obligation for the repayment of the advance made to them. For it is the intention of his Majesty's Government, and cannot be too clearly understoof by all persons who may accept this loan, that repayments of the debt (in such proportions and at such intervals as may not be unsuitable to the circumstances of each emigrant) shall be strictly enforced, by means of the ample powers which the laws of the colony render available for that purpose.

Government agents for emigration have been appointed at Liverpool, Bristol, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, and Greenock, who have been instructed to afford gratuitous information to all persons applying to them as to the best means of carrying their schemes of emigration into effect. Parties, therefore, who may reside in the neighbourhood of these agents are requested to apply to them either personally (or if by letter post paid) for information on this subject.

All application for the assistance of government must be made by letter only, addressed to R. W. Hay, Esq. Under Secretary of State, London ; and should the number of applications be greater than the funds at their disposal will enable them to comply with, priority of date will form the rule of selection among applications in which there shall appear no other groun of distinction. W. R. Hay.

