NEW SOUTH WALES.
No.
2.
February 17, 1848.
88 PAPERS RELATIVE TO EMIGRATION.
(No.
35.)
No.
2.
Copy of a DESPATCH from Earl Grey to Governor Sir C.
A.
FitzRoy.
Sir,
" Downing-street, February; 28, 1848.
I transmit to you herewith a copy of a report from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, in Which it is suggested that, with a view of keeping up the supply of labour required, a free passage to New South Wales should he offered to certain classes of orphans of both sexes in Ireland between the ages of 14 and 18.
Although I have not yet received any official communication of the assent of the Irish Government to the conditions of the proposal, I have no reason to doubt that it will be given; and I have, therefore, to desire that immediate measures may be taken to prepare for the reception of the intended emigrants.
With this view such a Committee as is suggested by the Commissioners should he formed; on which I hope that the prelates of both the churches of England and of Rome will consent to serve, and also some of the leading clergymen of the other denominations.
The first object of such Committee, when formed, should be to obtain a list of the most respectable persons in different parts of the colony to whom these orphans may be apprenticed as servants.
In making the selection amongst the applicants for apprentices (who will probably be numerous), the preference should be given to those who will be able to offer to these young persons the greatest advantages in the way of instruction in the occupations which, in after life, will he most useful to them, and also in regard to their being placed within reach of the superintendence of some* clergyman of their own religion.
The terms upon which they are to be .apprenticed
must be fully explained, and it will be one of the duties of the proposed.Committee
to act as guardians to the orphans, and, in case of their masters failing to discharge their duty towards them, to take measures for cancelling the indentures.
The enclosed Report from the Commissioners will point out to "you the advantages which they anticipate to the colony from this species of im¬ migration.
They are thus enabled to obtain a quicker 'supply of eligible emigrants than would otherwise have been practicable,, while "by sending out a proportion of unmarried females they are enabled to select good and useful labourers, who, from being unmarried, would otherwise have been ineligible, and at the same time, under the arrangement proposed, the casual expenses attending the outfit, superintendence, and instruction of the intended emigrants will be defrayed from the funds of this country.
I have, &c.,
Sir C.
A.
FitzRoy,
'
.
.'
(Signed).
GREY.
&c.
&c.
Encl.
in No.
2
Enclosure in No.
2.,
Colonial Land and Emigration Office, Sir, .
February 17, 1848.
We have the honour to acknowledge your letter ofthe 1st instant, in which you inform us that Lord Grey is prepared to sanction the proposal of Governor Robe to expend in emigration the moiety of the South Australian Land Fund not specially appropriated to that purpose, and that his Lordship is of opinion that this expenditure should not be extended over a period of two years, but that the dispatch of emigrants should be commenced and carried on as expeditiously as possible.
We shall not fail to use our best endeavours to carry out Lord Grey's wishes, and with that view we should propose to increase the number of ships to be dispatched in the course of the present year to New South Wales, South Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope from 54 to 72, sending them from England at the rate "of six in 'each month.
If our endeavours are as successful as we anticipate, we shall thus dispatch upwards of 14,000 emigrants from this country in the course of the ensuing year; and, continuing to regulate the numbers of emigrants obtained from Great Britain and Ireland by the relative
