The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-05 00:00:00

to w:ed to modify the existing law. • Those recommenda-
tions were so much matter of detail, that he was convinced
the House would not wish he should go at that
moment minutely into the subject. He hoped, however,
the proposals he had to offer would meet with the imme- '
diate approbation of the House, because, as the season for
emigration ended by the end of March,theywould other w ise
be useless for some time. He proposed to lay before the
House the Report of the Land and Emigration Com-
mission before he proceeded to consider the Bill in
Committee, and Honourable Gentlemen would thus have
an opportunity of discussing more conveniently its
different- details. He would propose new regulations
respecting the space required for each passenger, and the
amount of provisions and of water, which would be es-
Situated according tt:i the nature of the voyage to be under-
taken. The same regulations would not, of course, apply to
different climates, and to vopages of different lengths.
He also poposed that the Act should extend not only
to voyages from the United Kingdom, but also to
voyages undertaken from our colonial possessions.
As he had given notice of two Bills, he would take the
Opportunity, while on his legs, of stating the views with
which he proposed to introduce those Bills, and asking
leave to submit the:u to the consideration of the House,
particularly the one for the. sale of land in the Austra-
lian colonies.,-(llcer, hear.) He alluded to this
Bill for this reason, that her Majesty's Government
had a greater command over the legislation of the co •
luny and the application of the land fund than over that
of their North American colonies, where the whole of
the land was subject to separate legislation and autho-
rity, and which could not be dealt with in the
same manner a in the Australian colonies.
With regard to their West Indian possessions
it was unnecessary, and at all events improper, to legis-
late for them in the present circumstances, because no
great amount of emigration hal set in towards them, in
consequence of the climate being so different from their
OW-n, and so uncongenial to European constitutions, and
which rendered it the more necessary to support that class
of colonists in Australia. This colony required their pc--
Culler attention, because it had attracted the greatest
tide of immigration from this country. That immi-
gration was continually increasing, awl the land fund
• had • been proportionally increasing also. The returns
from the colony had also increased, and were
of the most satisfactory description. He thought
it would be gratifying to read to the House
a statement of a few figures, with regard to the imports
and exports from the Australian colonies within the last
few years. The exports from New South Wales in 1835
amounted to 682;000/., and in 1840 they had increased
from 682,004)1. to 1,251,000/.—(Hear, hear.) The im-
ports in the colony, two-thirds of which were of British
manufacture, amounted in the year 1835 to 727,0001
and had increased in 1840 to 2,600,000/.—(Hear, hear.)
In 1830 the exports from New South Wales in the arti-
cle of wool amounted to 900,000 pounds weight, and the
year 1836 that article of export from that colony, and
of import to this country, had risen from 900,000 pounds
weight to 3,611,000 pounds weight—(Hear, hear,
hear)—and in 1810 to 7,668,000 pounds weight.—
(Hear, hear.) He had trespassed for some time on
the patience of the House, in order to point out the
great importance of those colonies, and to show that in
their legislation they should proceed on sound data in a
matter relating not only to the comfort of the colonies,
but which was of the greatest importance, to the in-
terests of the mother country itself.—(Hear, hear.)
The system under which land had been granted in the
Australian Colonies had varied almost from year to year,
and this had occasioned great disappointment to persons
emigrating to the colony, who had gone out under one
set of regulations, and had on their arrival there found
a different-set of regulations in force. This circumstance
had • not only occasioned great disappointment, but had led
to disputed titles, and had occasioned great litigation; it had
tended to check emigration, and prevent the influx ofcapital
into the Colonies, for large as had been the increase in
the number of emigrants of late years, he firmly believed
that that increase would have been still greater had it
.not been for the tendency of these constantly changing
Schemes to check it. He would take the case of New
South Wales. In the year 1827 a set of re-
guletions had been promulgated, relative to the grant-
ing of land, laying down certain conditions, a compliance
with which would entitle the emigrant to a grant. These
regulations had not, he believed, been promulgated from
authority ; but many persons had gone out, expecting,
on their arrival in the colony, to find those regulations
in force. In 1828 those regulations were changed, and
grants of land were made, upon a principle different to
that which had been acted on in 1827. In 1831, his Noble
Friend Lord. Ripon, with the assistance of another Noble
Friend of his (Lord llowick), who was not then present,
had much to their. own credit, and to the advantage of
the colony, introduced a principle substituting the prin-
ciple of the sale of lands for the grant of them. That
principle had at first been objected to by the inhabitants
of the comity, but the result of that plan had been, that
Whereas, in the year 1830, the amount arising from the
sale of lands did. not. exceed 896/. It had successively
risen in. different years to 3,1001., 8,9004, 108,000/.,
114,0004 • 127,000/., 160,0001, emit, in 1840, it had
risen to '339,7131,-(Hear, hear, hear.)—He thought
it right to state, that in consequence of various circum-
stances, that-aniount had during the past year been con-
siderably diminished, and 1841 he did not expect that
the awn realised- would much exceed 160,0004 In the
veer 18:11. the principle of the sale of lands had been first
introduced. In 1838 the price of land had been altered,
baying been raised from ss. to 12s. an acre. In October,
'1440; new method of disposing of land had been
introdueeil into New South Wales. Instead of making the
sales by auction, and naming a minimum price, a fixed
price of 11. per acre had I),,:en made, and this mode of
disposing of lands had been scarcely a year in existence
when another Chace was made ; and in August, 1841,
the Colonial-office had gone back to the system
which had been abandoned in the previous year.
He slid not say that those alterations had not
• been made without good and valid reason, but
liei;,',ul4l not :sec why any Secretary of State shoold
have it id his power too-make those changes. almost with-
Cut the authority- of Parliaarmit; and he thought it was
not right that any Secretary; of State should possess the
power of making these changes without autho-
rity, and without taking those means to give them
riblicity, without which it was impossible to ob-
tain the confidence -of the public mind.—(Hear.)
'What he meant to propose was, to divest the Secretary
of .`,';ate of that responsibility, and that undue power.
He (Lot.: Stanley) proposed to introduce a Bill which
would regaiii!e the principles and the provisions by
which land was st;,:l in Australia. He had great objec-
tion to having the prifiziple and the system different in
the various colonies.—(lfear.) He saw no reason that
the principle of sale by aucikin should exist in
One. colony, and a fixed price in another. He saw
no reason why Port Philip should have one systtme, and
Sydney mother—why Western Australia should differ
in that respect from South Australia and from New Zea-
land. He proposed to apply the same system by Act of
Parliament to all the colonies. He would state as
eliortly as possible the system he proposed to lay
before them, because, whether the details of his plan
on this subject should be legislated upon by the House
or not, they would not be supposed to refuse _ per-
mission to introduce a Bill upon the subject. The
system he meant to introduce to their attention, was
neither absolute sale by auction, nor by fixed price,
but 'it was a system founded on a principle recom-
mended by a Committee, which investigated last year
the affairs of Australia, according to which the
coasts of the several colonies, being surveyed accord-
ing to districts, certain portions of land would be
continually brought into the market,. and there should'
he a fixed upset price below which no land should be
scold—that the lands should be divided into three classes,
viz., those reserved for the sites of towns; those which,
from the peculiarity of their situation in the immediate '
neighbourhood of towns, had acquired an artificial value;
.and the third class comprehended .country lots..
'With regard to. the ordinary country lots they
were put to auction at certain intervals, say six
*mantles. His system should go to effect that there should
be always a supply of land without waiting for
those periodical sales. and to prevent practices
Ir sala', arising from those periodical sales, had an
injurious effect on the price and value of land.
rroposed, therefore, that an upset price should be
fixed on the' land ; that it should be subject to perio-
dical sales, and that the land not purchased at
piriedicat sales should remain capable of
(0 being_ purchased at the upset price, in the interval
wr-'! between the sales, by any person desirous of purchasing.
?I'' The consequence of this would be, that the more ealu-
''" able land would sell at the larger price, and the inferior
land would sell at the minimum price ; and those persons
who were content to take inferior lands, rather than
wait for the periodical sales, would have the chance
of taking inferior lands, and settling themselves upon it,
without the delay of waiting for the periodical sales.
He would not weary the House by entering into all
the details of the measure. The Bill was applica-
ble to the whole of the Australian colonies, and
it embodied, with some exceptions, the recom-
mendations of the Australian Committee of last year.
He proposed to gike a power to the Queen in Council to
fix the price of land, and he proposed to give to the Go •
vernor m t the colony a discretionary power, in certain
districts, of raising from time to time the price fixed by
the Queen in Council ; and, after the Queen in Council
hid sanctioned the increased price, no authority less
than that of the House of Commons would be able
to diminish it. With respect to the proceeds
.of the sales, he knew that there were many gentlemen
who contended that they should be entirely applied to
the purposes of emigration. •He was not prepared to go
that length. He was quite satisfied that in many cases
it would be very inconvenient if a positive rule were
hid down that the Whole of the proceeds of • the
land sale should be applied to the purposes of
emigration. Emigration, important as it was, was not the
otily purpose to which the land funds might be legiti-
mittelY applied. It should be recollected that they were
not dealing with R.ll abstract, uninhabited country,and that
this aborigines had clef us
For the purpose upon their justice amid humanity.
of affording thew relief part of the salts
_ 4ould b...• applied. The internal'ims e pro ment of the colo-
Mes was another object which would
notv be lost sight of.
ale proposed, with the consent of the Crown, to
pct that one-half of the land sales should
be applicable to the puipose of •emigration,
and its much more in each case as the authorities ma
think lit, after deductions for the purpose to which he
hail
al/wht He believed it would be necessary to limit
the duration of the Act to the life of her present Majesty.
He proposed
this limitation because he thought her Ma-
jesty had no right beyond her own life to dispose of
:those lands which formed her hereditary revenue. At
ratterents, there being doubts on this question—„„d in_
deed there were more than doubts—there could be no
objection to the provision which he proposed, limiting
the duration of-the Act to the life of the Sovereign.
With these observations, and thanking the House for the
attention they bad given hith on the dry details of
mia subject, he now moved for leave to bring in
a to regulate the laws relating to the carriage of
pasreg7inattertshet in
pe oflands in
mercantile vessels ; and also a Bill to j
the Australian Colonies.