FREE AND ASSISTED PASSAGES. The only colonies which at present promote immigration from the United Kingdom by means of their public funds are Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, some of the provinces of New Zealand, and the Canadian Dominion.

The system on which assistance is afforded varies in each colony, as more fully explained below.

approved by the Agent General, are eligible for assisted passages, upon payment of 8l. before embarkation, and giving an undertaking to pay to the colonial government the balance of the passage money, computed at the rate of 161. per statute adult, within 12 months after arrival.

Colonial nominees are provided with passages upon payments, ranging from 41, to 82, made to the immigration agent at Brisbane by resident colonists, who also undertake to pay the balance within 12 months after the arrival of their nominees.

The following is the scale of payments in the Colony for nominated passages :-

Victoria.-Immigration into the colony, at the expense of the colonial funds, is governed by regulations issued by the local government at Melbourne, on the 16th June 1870, amended by regulations dated 11th October 1871.

Passage Warrants.-Residents in the colony, by making the subjoined payments to the Colonial Government, may obtain what are called “ Passage Warrants” for the introduction of their relatives and friends.

Under 15 years.

Sex.

£ 9 5

No. 195.

These payments are at the maximum rates fixed by the Colonial Immigration Statute, 1864, 27 Vict.

The passage warrants are valid for 9 months only, after the date of their issue in the Colony, and in certain cases are transferable with the previous sanction of the Agent General for Victoria.

The persons named in the passage warrants or their transferees are provided with free passages from this country by the Colonial Agent, whose address is No. 8, Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. No other emigrants are at present assisted to emigrate to this colony.

New South Wales.— The Emigration Commissioners grant free passages to single female domestic servants of good character not exceeding 35 years of age, and to a limited number of married agricultural labourers with not more than one child under four years of age. Passages can also be granted to certain classes of married mechanics on payments varying with age and sex from ll. tu 8l. for each person.

South AUSTRALIA.-Free and assisted emigration to this colony is suspended. QUEENSLAND.--Emigration to Queensland is

regulated by “The Immigration Act, 1869.” At present female servants are provided with free passages. To a limited extent farmers and farm labourers may obtain passages without prepayment on con

an undertaking to repay the Colonial Government the cost of their passages within 24 months after arrival in the colony:

Shepherds, mechanics connected with railways and the builing trades, and such other classes as may be

N.B. Children under 12 months old will be taken free, but no land orders will be issued on their account.

In return for these payments the nominor will receive an order for the selection of 40 acres of land for each person 12 years of age and upwards, and 20 acres for each child between the ages of 1 and 12 years, subject to conditions of residence, cultivation, &c. Subject to the same conditions, orders for the selection of land are granted to free and assisted passengers upon payment of their undertakings.

The Act also provides for the hiring in Europe, through the agents of the colony, of mechanics, labourers, or servants, for two years, on behalf of employers in the colony. In such cases, the

persons hired are required to give an undertaking to repay. to the colonial government, within 24 months of their arrival, 161., or where an assisted passage is granted 8l. per adult for their passage; and the employers are required to endorse on that undertaking a guarantee for the payment, should the immigrant make default therein. If the employer has to make the payment, he will be entitled to receive the order for the selection of land to which the immigrant would otherwise have been entitled, but without the conditions of residence, &c., imposed upon the immigrant.

Applications for free or assisted passages are to be addressed to the colonial agent, Mr. James Wheeler, 32, Charing Cross, London, S.W. TASMANIA.—To this Colony the

assisted emigration is carried on by means of “Bounty Tickets,” which are procurable in the Colony,

The following, taken from the Government Notice, issued in Hobart Town under date 1st January 1868, shows the scale of payments, and the conditions under which the “Bounty Tickets? are granted.

dition of signing

him to select 20 acres within 12 months after the arrival of his wife (if any), and also a further certificate authorizing him to select 10 acres in respect of each child within 12 months after the arrival of such child in Tasmania, such selections to be made within 12 months after the date of such certificates; and every such certificate shall be received in par. ment by the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the purchase money of any waste lands selected by virtue of such certificate for purchase under the nineteenth section of The Waste Lands Act, 1863.

No person who pays the purchase money for any waste lands of the Crown by virtue of any such Land Order, or who selects land under any such ! certificate as aforesaid, shall be entitled to claim a grant from the Crown of the land so paid for or selected until he has resided for five years in Tasmania: Provided that, in case he should die before he has resided for five years in Tasmania, his heirat-law or devisee, as the case may be, shall be forthwith entitled to a grant of the said land: And provided further, that in case any such person ceases to reside in Tasmania before the expiration of five years after his arrival, the land so purchased by virtue of any such Land Order or selected under any such certificate shall revert to the Crown and become waste land.

Payments required from Applicants. For a family ticket, including a man and his wife, with all their children under 12 years of age at the time of embarkation

£15 For a ticket for a single female

£5 For a ticket for a single male

£10 All children of 12 years of age or upwards at embarkation are to be considered as adults, and must each have a separate single ticket.

No ticket will be issued for the introduction of any “single” person above the age of 60 years at the time of sailing of the vessel from the United Kingdom unless upon payment of 161., and documentary evidence of the age of any immigrant must be produced, when required, to the satisfaction of the Immigration Agent upon the immigrant's arrival in the Colony, otherwise the person intro. ducing such immigrant will be liable for the whole of the passage money.

In the case of families, if the parents or either of them are over the age of 60 years at the time of sailing, the deposit to be made by the person procuring the ticket will be 201. The "

engagement set out in the Bounty Ticket must be signed by the emigrant (for himself and family), agreeing not to leave Tasmania within four years after arrival without having previously paid to the Immigration Agent at Hobart Town or Launceston one-fourth of the whole cost of the passage money for every year wanting to complete four years residence in the Colony, and a proportionate sum for every part of a year.

Persons who introduce immigrants under these regulations must provide for their reception onarrival.

By an Act passed on the 11th October 1867 (31st Vict, No. 26) the Board of Immigration are authorized to appoint Agents in Europe for the selection of emigrants, such Agents to grant to any approved emigrant who has not previously resided in the Colony, and who proceeds direct from Europe to Tasmania, and who pays the full cost of the passage of himself or any other person being a member of his own family, a Land Order Warrant which shall entitle the holder to receive on his arrival in the Colony a Land Order of the nominal value of 181. for each emigrant of the age of 15 years and upwards, and 91. for each child between the ages of 12 months and 15 years.

These Land Orders will be received in payment of land sold at any Government land sale or selected for purchase under “ The Waste Lands Act, 1863."

The Act further provides as follows:

Any person arriving in the Colony with the intention of settling therein, from Europe or India, whose passage money to the Colony is paid by himself as a cabin or intermediate passenger, and who has not previously received or accepted a Land Order as herein-before provided, shall, at any time within 12 months after his arrival in the Colony, be entitled to demand from the Board of Immigration, and shall thereupon receive, a certificate authorizing such person to select 30 acres of land; and in case such person arrives under the circumstances aforesaid with a family, then such person shall be entitled to a further certificate authorizing

New ZEALAND. Assisted passages are granted to the following classes of persons :-Navvies, general farın labourers, ploughmen, gardeners, shepherds, a few country mechanics, and to single female domestic servants and dairymaids.

I. Married couples and families can obtain passages on payment down of 51. per adult, or when payment at that rate cannot be made, upon giving a promissory note for a sum equal to double the amount remaining unpaid, according to the follow. ing scale :When 1l. per adult is paid in cash,

a promissory note for 8l, each adult. 21.

61. 31.

41. 41,

21. Assisted passages are not given to more than two children under 12 years (including infants) in each family; but parents may pay full passage money for children in excess of that number.

II. Single women.-Passages without prepayment are given to single female domestic servants and dairy maids between 15 and 35 years of age, who are required to give promissory notes for 5l eache payable in quarterly instalments, the first payment be made three months after the date of their arrival

III. Single men are required to pay 8l. each before embarkation, or 4l. before embarkation and give their promissory note for 8l, payable in the coloay.

Residents in New Zealand can secure passages for their friends by paying in the colony the sum of 5l. per adult and half-price for children.

For further particulars, application may be made to the Agent General for New Zealand, No. 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, London, S.W.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.—There are no Colonial funds appropriated for emigration to this Colony. It is only occasionally, when authorized by the Secretary of State, that the Emigration Commissioners can provide passages at the expense of Imperial funds for persons whose emigration has been recommended by the Governor.

Cape or Good Hope.—There is no provision at present for granting assistance of any kind to persons who wish to emigrate to the Colony.

Natal.- Assisted emigration is for the present suspended.

tain the endorsement of the emigration agent for Ontario at his office on the wharf at Point Levi.

4. The emigrant on arrival at the agency in the province of Ontario nearest to his intended desti. nation will then be provided for by the local agent, and sent by free pass or otherwise to where employment is to be had.

5. At any time after three months from date of the endorsement of the certificate at Quebec, and on proof that the emigrant has been and still is a settler in the province, the Government of Ontario will pay to the society or individual issuing the certificate the sum of ii. 48. 8d. per statute adult.

Applications for passage warrants and for assisted passages to Ontario under the above regulations should be addressed to Wm. Dixon, Esq., No. 11 Adam Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.: C. Foy, Esq., No. 11, Claremont Street, Belfast; and H. J. Larkin, Esq., 19, Eden Quay, Dublin.

British COLUMBIA.— In 1869 a sum of money was granted by the Colonial Government in aid of the emigration of female domestic servants, but the Commissioners have no information as to the mode in which it was applied, or whether any balance remains available for assisting the emigration of females.

To the other British Colonies there is no free or assisted emigration.

DOMINION OF CANADA.

AID TO EMIGRANTS UNDER THE LOCAL GOVERN

MENT BOARD.

A limited number of Assisted Passages are granted by the Government of Canada on board the steamships of the Allan line at the rate of 4l. 58. sterling for each adult; 21. 2s. 6d. for each child between 1 and 8 years of age ; and 14s. 2d. for each infant under 1 year. Ten cubic feet of luggage are allowed free to each statute adult. Persons eligible for these assisted passages must produce satisfactory certificates of character to the Agent of the Colony in this country, and declare their intention to become settlers in Canada.

The following is the substance of the Regulations of the Government of Ontario for granting assistance towards passages, dated Department of Agriculture and Public Works, Toronto, 1872:

The Ontario Government will pay to regularly organized emigration societies in the United King dom or in Ontario, or to individuals, the sum of six dollars or 11. 48. 8d. sterling for every statute adult sent to that province at the end of three months' continuous residence in the province, and on the following conditions :

1st. The society or individual sending out the emigrants in respect of whom the payment is to be asked shall forward them to an agent of the Government of Ontario with certificates in a prescribed form.

The Poor Law Act of 1834 and other quent Acts empower the application of the poor rate towards the emigration of poor persons, and enable guardians of unions and of parishes to promote emigration at the cost of their funds, with the order and subject to the regulations of the Local Government Board.

The several Acts relating to the removability of paupers and the chargeability of relief to the cominon fund have indirectly affected the previous enactments, and the present state of the law on the subject may be thus generally described :

Expenditure for emigration has, in the case of unions, become a common fund charge.

The written concurrence of the guardians of the parish, formerly necessary in unions, is therefore no longer required.

Excepting in the case of orphan or deserted children under 16 years of age, guardians of unions can expend money in the emigration of any poor person residing therein, whether actually in receipt of relief or not.

With the like exception, the guardians of a separate parish can expend money in the emigration of any poor person residing therein, who is settled in such parish or irremovable therefrom, whether in receipt of relief or not.

2nd. The emigrants sent out must be of good character and suitable, in the agent's opinion, to the wants of the colony. They must consist of at least 70 per cent. of the agricultural class, and not more than 30 per cent, mechanics, such as blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinet makers, painters, plasterers, saddlers, stonecutters, shoemakers, tailors, and tinsmiths. The emigrants must obtain the endorsement of the colonial agent to the form of certificate above referred to.

3. On arrival at Quebec the immigrant must ob