The Immigration Act of 1869
The Act, which came into effect on 14th September 1869, established five systems of immigration under the control of the Agent General – (1) That of persons who pay for their passages (2) assisted emigrants, (3) free emigrants (4) nominated emigrants, (5) emigrants sent out by the Agent-General at the request of employers.
1. Any person paying the full amount of passage money of himself or of any other per son, being a member of his own family, including domestic servants, will be entitled to a land order for each. Steerage or intermediate passengers, however, must sail in ships approved of by the Agent General.
2. Assisted passages may be granted to emigrants approved of by the Agent General, provided that they pay as follows, towards the cost of passage. If under 12 years, £1, over that age, £3, female domestic servants £4. A reduction of £1 is made for each unmarried female over 11 years, in excess of single males over that age in the same family. Persons eligible as assisted passengers are farmers, shepherds farmers’ labourers, vine dressers, labourers, mechanics, and domestic servants. Every applicant with the exception of female domestic servants, will have to enter into an agreement to pay the Government the sum of £8 per statute adult within twelve months after arrival and should that agreement be fulfilled, the assisted immigrants will be entitled to a land order.
3. Free passages may be granted to the same class of persons stated in the foregoing paragraph to be eligible for assisted passages. Every applicant is required to pay £1 for each member of his family counted as adults, and except in the case of female domestic servants, must enter into an undertaking to pay to the Government, by equal instalments, at twelve and twenty four months after arrival, the sum of £16 per statute adult, being the estimated cost of passage. Should the undertaking be carried out, the immigrants who receive a free passage will be entitled to a land order.
4. Colonists will be allowed to nominate for a passage and friend or relative, approved of by the Agent General, on the following scale of payments. Children under 12 and females under 35, £4, males between 12 and 45 and females between 35 and 45, £6; persons of both sexes above 45, £8. The nominator must also undertake to pay, within twelve months, the additional sum required to make up £16, the cost of passage. When the undertaking is fulfilled he will be entitled to receive a land order.
5. The Agent General in England, or the Agent for Immigration in Germany, will engage mechanics labourers, and servants, at the request of employers, for a term of two years in such a ages as may be agreed upon, but the person thus engaged must undertake to pay to the Government the sum of £16 per adult member of his family, or, if an assisted passenger, £8 per adult, within twenty four months of his or her arrival in the colony, and, on such payment being duly made, will be entitled to receive a land orders. The employer has to endorse the undertaking, and should the person engaged not pay the sum required, and the employer do so, the latter will be entitled to the land order.
The land orders are not transferable, are to be to the extent of forty acres of country land open for selection, for each person of twelve years and upwards, and twenty acres for each child between the ages of one and twelve years. The selector must make a declaration that the land is for his own exclusive use and benefit, and will then receive a license to occupy it for five years. If before the end of that period he has not allocated any part of the land, has resided on it for three years continuously, and has cultivated one tenth, or has fenced the whole in a substantial manner, he will be on titled to a Crown grant on payment of the deed fees.