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EMIGRANTS TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA, 1839
 

MR. E. LATIMER has recently been appointed by the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia, Special AGENT for the SALE OF LAND in the rising and important Colony of SOUTH AUSTRALIA, and for conducting the EMIGRATION of LABORERS desirous of going to that flourishing and healthy country.

The necessary limits of an advertisement barely admit of more than a mere statement of a few of the advantages connected with Emigration to South Australia. The great number of settlers that have already gone out have laid the foundation of a colony, which from the fertility of the soil, its freedom from immense forests that require their clearance, incessant, and, at the commencement, unrequited labor – the salubrity of the climate – and the wise precautions taken by the commissioners to ensure an abundance of laborers to meet the demands of the many respectable Capitalists that have taken up their residence in the country – all promise not only the formation of a permanent, but of a highly flourishing community. The many evils necessarily generated under the old system of Colonial misjudgement will be avoided by the wise and judicious plans pursued by the promoters of the Colonization of South Australia, to whose excellent management almost every emigrant, whether capitalist, artisan, or laborer, has borne his unqualified testimony.

The emigrants to South Australia will not come in contact with the mass of iniquity that prevails in the other Australian Colonies, as no convicts are permitted to be sent to this part of Her Majesty’s dominion. Those who know anything about the corrupt state of society in our penal settlements will at once see the excellence of this arrangement, as the morals of the emigrants and of their children will not be liable to receive that taint and corruption which it is impossible to avoid where they constantly associate with persons who have been transported for the most heinous offences. The Colony too is not liable to failure, as the commissioners provide that all land shall be sold at a fixed sum per Acre, and the proceeds of every such sale are devoted to the conveyance of labourers free of expense, on certain conditions, some of which are stated below. Mr. Latimer is ready to negotiate sales of land at a uniform price of GBP4 per Acres, in sections of 80 acres each. The parties making such purchases are allowed the privilege of selecting servants and laborers for a Free Passage, at the rate of one person for every GBP 20 expended in land, conformably to the rules of the Commissioners.

With respect to laborers wishing to emigrate the following are the regulations –

1. The Act of Parliament declares that the whole of the funds arising from the sale of lands, and the rent of pasture, shall form an Emigration Fund, to be employed in affording a free passage to the Colony from Great Britain and Ireland for poorer persons; “provided that they shall, as far as possible, be adult persons of both sexes in equal proportions, and not exceeding the age of 30 years.”
2. With a view to carrying this provision into effect, the Commissioners offer a free passage to the Colony (including provisions and medical attendance during the voyage) to persons of the following description:
3. Agricultural laborers, Shepherds, Bakers, Blacksmiths, Braziers, and Tinmen, Smiths, Shipwrights, Boat-builders, Butchers, Wheelwrights, Sawyers, Cabinetmakers, Coopers, Curriers, Farriers, Millwrights, Harness-makers, Lime-burners, and all persons engaged in the erection of buildings.
4. Persons engaged in the above occupations, who may apply for a free passage to South Australia, must be able to give satisfactory references to show that they are honest, sober, industrious, and of general good character.
5. They must be real laborers, going out to work for wages in the colony, of sound mind and body, not less than 15, nor more than 30 years of age, and married. The Marriage Certificate must be produced. The rule as to age is occasionally departed from in favour of the parents of large families.
6. To the wives of such laborers as are then sent out, the Commissioners offer a free passage with their husbands.
7. To single women a free passage will be granted, provided they go out under the protection of their parents, or near relatives, or under actual engagement as servants to ladies going as cabin passengers on board the same vessel. The preference will be give to those accustomed to farm and dairy work, to seamstresses, strawplatters, and domestic servants.
8. The children of parents sent out by the Commissioners will receive a free passage, if they are under one, or fall 15 years of age at the time of embarkation. For all other children GBP 5 each must be paid before embarkation by their parents or friends, or by the Parish. It will be useless to apply for a relaxation of this rule.
9. Persons who are ineligible to be conveyed out by the Emigration Fund, if not disqualified on account of character, will be allowed to accompany the free Emigrants on paying to the commissioners the bare contract price of passage, which is usually between GBP 15 and 17 for each adult person. The charges for children are as follows: under one year of age, no charge; one year of age but under seven, one-third of the charge for adults; seven years of age and under fourteen, one-half the charge for adults. A passage intermediate between a cabin and steerage passage may also be obtained of the Commissioners at a cost exceeding that of the steerage passage by one-half. Each intermediate passenger is entitled to half a cabin with some slight comforts in addition to those enjoyed by the steerage passengers.
10. All Emigrants, adults as well as children, must have been vaccinated.
11. Emigrants will, for the most part, embark at the Port of London, but if any considerable number should offer themselves in the neighbourhood of any port of Great Britain or Ireland, arrangement will, if possible, be made for their embarkation at such port.
12. The expense of reaching the port of embarkation must be borne by the emigrants, but on the day appointed for their embarkation, they will be received, even though the departure of the ship should be delayed, and will be put to no further expense.
13. Every adult Emigrant is allowed to take half-a-ton weight or twenty measured cubic feet of baggage. Extra baggage is liable to charge at the rate of GBP 2.10s the ton.
14. The Emigrants must provide the bedding for themselves and children, and the necessary tools of their own trades; the other articles most useful for emigrants to take with them, are strong plain clothing, or the materials for making clothes upon the passage. In providing clothing, it should be remembered that the usual length of the voyage is about four months.
15. On the arrival of the Emigrants in the colony, they will be received by an Officer, who will supply their immediate wants, assist them in reaching the place of their destination, be ready to advise with them in case of difficulty, and at all times give them employment at reduced wages on the Government works, if from any cause they should be unable to obtain it elsewhere. The Emigrants will, however, be at perfect liberty to engage themselves to any one willing to employ them, and will make their own bargain for wages. This arrangement, while it leaves the Emigrant free to act as he may think right, manifestly renders it impossible for the Commissioners to give any exact information as to the amount of wages to be obtained; they can merely state that hitherto wages have been very much higher than in England.

Mr. Latimer will readily furnish any other information that may be required by persons desirous of emigrating whether as free or cabin passengers; but all communication to him on this subject must be postage free.

ROSEWYN, Truro, February 27, 1839

Source: West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser. See this website for more transcriptions.