A letter from Sydney, the principal town of Australasia |
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Title : | A letter from Sydney, the principal town of Australasia |
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Creator : | Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 1796-1862 | ||
Place Of Creation : | London | ||
Publisher : | Joseph Cross | ||
Date of creation : | 1829 | ||
Additional Creator : | Gouger, Robert, 1802-1846 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 1796-1862. | ||
Format : | Book | ||
Dimensions : | 174 x 112 x 24mm | ||
Contributor : | State Library catalogue | ||
Catalogue record | |||
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Description : |
Written by Edward Gibbon Wakefield while in Newgate Gaol and edited by Robert Gouger, A letter from Sydney purports to describe the nature of immigration to New South Wales and the problem of managing the supply of land and labour. The appendix, 'Outline of a system of colonization', describes Wakefield's proposal for a system that would provide an efficient supply of both of those essential commodities. Wakefield proposes nine articles, including that land in a new colony should be sold and not granted, but that land already granted be taxed at a percentage of the rent, and that the proceeds from land sales be used to form an emigration fund to transport British labourers free of cost. By these measures it was hoped the supply of labourers would be 'proportioned to the demand for labour at each settlement; so that Capitalists shall never suffer from an urgent want of Labourers, and that Labourers shall never want well-paid employment'. It was also proposed that preference be given to young emigrants with as near as possible equal numbers of the sexes in order that the population in time would become self-sustaining. These articles can be seen to have informed the South Australia Act in 1834. |
Related names : | Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 1796-1862 |
Period : | Pre-1836 |
Further reading : | Mills, Richard Charles. The colonization of Australia (1829-42); the Wakefield experiment in empire building, London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1968 Pike, Douglas. Paradise of dissent, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon. A letter from Sydney, the principal town of Australasia, London: Joseph Cross, 1829 |
Internet links : | Australian Dictionary of Biograph Online - search for Edward Gibbon Wakefield |