John Dunmore Lang

“ To encourage and promote the importation of free labour, in accordance with the views and intentions of His Majesty's government as above-mentioned, the colonial executive give a bounty of £30 from the colonial land revenue for every married couple, of the class of agricultural labourers, shepherds, or mechanics, imported into New South Wales, provided the persons so imported have been selected by some agent duly authorized by a colonial proprietor ”

“ These squatters are all rapidly increasing their flocks and herds, and thereby enriching themselves through the permissive occupancy of the Crown land beyond the present limits,—a privilege which has hitherto been most judiciously allowed them by the colonial executive: for these persons are thus acquiring the means of making extensive purchases of land from the government in their respective localities, whenever the colonial boundary shall have been extended to Bass's Straits ”

“ In regard to the probability of finding a sufficient number of virtuous and industrious persons in the mother country willing to emigrate to New South Wales, there can be no doubt whatever on the subject. ”

“ With respect to the application of a remedy, to prevent a recurrence of such painful circumstances in future, the meeting see none, except emigration. The country is altogether adapted for pasture, and suited only for a limited population: when the population exceeds these limits, poverty and distress must ensue. ”

“ The change of system would necessarily subject them, moreover, to some temporary inconvenience, and would require considerable effort; and men who are tolerably comfortable in their circumstances already, are not likely to disregard such considerations, even for the prospect of ultimate pecuniary advantage, much less for the promotion of the moral welfare of their families and of posterity. ”

“ They are a frugal and industrious people,—eminently virtuous and religious and I need scarcely state, that whether as agricultural labourers or as shepherds, they would be peculiarly welcome, and would be sure to find immediate employment and sufficient subsistence in New South Wales. In short, that colony could very easily find room for not fewer than from five to ten thousand Highlanders, including men, women, and children, every year ”

“ The extensive tract of table-land lying beyond the present colonial boundary to the southward, between the Great Warragong Chain, terminating in Wilson's Promontory, and now called the Snowy Mountains, or Australian Alps, and the mountainous range abutting on the east coast, is also occupied at present by numerous squatters, with large flocks and herds from New South Wales. ”

“ Now, as it is equally the interest of the British government and of the colonial executive, as well as of all classes of free colonists in New South Wales, that the revenue arising from the sale of Crown land in that colony should be as large as possible, and that the number of free emigrant agricultural labourers, shepherds, and mechanics, which this revenue has been appropriated to import into the colonial territory, should also be increased to the utmost ”

“ The inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland have peculiar claims on the British government. They have uniformly supplied a large proportion of the gallant men who have fought the battles of their country for a century past. ”

“ It is also the desire of the colonists generally, and the recommendation of a committee of the Legislative Council, that every such emigrant should also be allowed a certain drawback from the purchase-money of his land, to cover the expense of his passage out. ”