Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/157

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CROWN LANDS TJNDEE PHILLIP. 129 tion of land in New South Wales at a date not far distant ^^^ bj a class of men quite different from those provided for in the Additional Instructions.* Other proposals for taking up land on a large scale were under notice in the years 1791 and 1792, and it is not im- probable that they had been submitted informally as early as the year 1789. Sometime in 1791 a Quaker named John sutfon'g Sutton was in correspondence with the Home Department concerning the terms on which Quaker families would be accepted as emigrants.f Sutton made certain proposals, which were agreed to in a modified form, and it was arranged that fifteen families should go out. The principal conditions were that the emigrants should have free grants of land, that they should have implements and tools out of the public ^'JJJ^®' store, provisions for two years, and the service of convicts anigmnts. free of charge, who were to receive two years' rations and one year's clothing from the store.J Nothing appears in the memorandum of conditions to show what area of land was to be granted ; but in the proposals made by Sutton it was stipulated that each settler should have not less than five hundred acres ; and it was further proposed that the " said

  • It does not appear that anj definite steps in this direction were taken so

earlj as 1789 } but the Records show that proposals were under the considera- tion of the Goyemment not long afterwards. In vol. i, part 2, of the Historical Beoords, p. 424, will be found a proposal to send out fanailies to settle in liew South Wales. It is printed from a manuscript in the handwriting of Sir Joseph Banks, and it ends with the words, " My proposal read to Mr. IR^epean." It is not certain that the proposal was made by Sir Joseph Banks himself. He was in the habit, as the papen purchased by the Kew South Wales QoTemmentfrom Lord Braboume show, of making copies of doouments bearing upon the affairs of the colony, and the words *' my propositi read to Mr. Nepean" may hare formed part of an original document written by somebody else. It would seem, however, that this proposal, which contem^ plated the grant of an '* estate" to the person who made it, to be occupied by ^onilies to be sent from England, was actually laid by Sir Joseph Banks before the Under Secretary of the Home Department. The MS. bears no date, bat it is beliered to hare been written sometime in the year 1790. Paasibly it was written at an earlier date, or communicated, verbaUy, to the Secretary of State, or the Under Secretary, preyious to the framing of the schedule of fees attached to the Additional Instructions. t The correspondence is published in the Historical Becords, yol. i, part 2, pp. 580-585. i lb., p. 684. VOU II. — I