The Northern Territory Indian Immigration Act.-1882. allotment the same sum that would have been payable by any private employer. PART IV. 38. In any allotment the Immigration Agent-General shall, with Indenture fee of the assistance of any medical officer to the said department, or, in his immigrant not ableabsence or inability to act, of the Health Officer of the port, distinguish every immigrant who is in his opinion not able-bodied and not capable of performing service as an agricultural laborer; and the indenture fee payable in respect of any such immigrant shall be such part of that which would have been payable in respect of such immigrant if he had been an able-bodied immigrant as the Immigration AgentGeneral may think proper, or such immigrant may be indentured without payment of any indenture fee, and the indenture may prescribe such conditions as to the nature of the employment to be. assigned to the immigrant as the Immigration Agent-General may deem necessary. 39. On the completion of every allotment or other disposition of Mode of indenture immigrants on introduction, the Immigration Agent-General shall register every immigrant included in such allotment or disposition in the general register of immigrants introduced into the said province (Schedule No. 3), distinguishing to the best of his ability such as are adults, minors, and infants, respectively, and shall number therein each of such immigrants by a particular number, commencing from the last number borne on such register, and proceeding by regular numerical progression; and shall deliver to the employer or his representative an indenture list, signed by all the adult and minor immigrants allotted to him (Schedule No. 7), and shall transmit to the Auditor-General a return showing the number of immigrants included in such allotment, and the sums payable by way of indenture fee in respect of such immigrants, an 1 shall deliver to every adult or minor immigrant included in such allotment a certificate of indenture (Schedule No. 8), and every such employer and immigrant shall thereupon be, and be taken to be, bound by such indenture accordingly. indenture fees. 40. Unless the Governor shall specially require the indenture Mode of payment of fees on any allotment to be paid in cash, payment thereof shall be made in the following manner:-One-tenth in cash forthwith, and for the balance five promissory notes shall be given, bearing date the day of the arrival of the ship in which such immigrants were introduced, the first for one-tenth of such indenture fees, payable with interest at the rate of six per centum per annum at the end of one year from the date thereof, and each of the remaining notes for onefifth thereof, payable with interest at the same rate, one at the end of each of the four years then next following: Provided that if the employer shall neglect or refuse to pay, within six days after his account shall have been rendered to him by the Immigration AgentGeneral, either wholly in cash, or partly in cash and partly in promissory notes, as provided by this Act, the amount of indenture fees payable in respect of such allotment, the whole shall thereupon fall due and become PART IV. Delivery of immi grants. Annual report of allotments. Term of indenture of immigrants. Exemption of infant immigrants. Rights of minor, infant, &c., immigrants. The Northern Territory Indian Immigration Act.-1882. become payable in cash: Provided further, that on any allotment made to an employer in respect of any plantation held by him as a mortgagor, to which the mortgagee shall have objected in writing, or a lease for a term of which less than five years are unexpired, the indenture fees shall be paid in cash. 41. If any employer to whom an allotment may be made shall not take away the immigrants so allotted to him within four days. after the delivery to him of his indenture list of such immigrants, he shall pay to the said Immigration Fund at the rate of One Shilling for every adult immigrant and Sixpence for every minor immigrant for every day that such immigrant shall remain in the depôt. 42. The Immigration Agent-General shall, as soon as possible after the first day of July in every year, publish in the Government Gazette a list of all ships which have arrived with immigrants, and of the allotments and distribution of such immigrants during the preceding season: 43. The indentures of immigrants arriving in the said territory shall be for the term of five years from the date of their respective allotments. 44. No infant immigrant shall be indentured, or shall be compelled to perform any service whatever upon any plantation. 45. Every minor or infant immigrant residing on a plantation, and every immigrant indentured as other than an able-bodied immigrant, shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges and immunities as able-bodied immigrants under indenture are entitled to under this Act. PART V. Dissolution of in of immigrant. PART V. THE DETERMINATION AND TRANSFER OF CONTRACTS. 46. If within three months from the allotment of any imdenture for disability migrant he shall die, or it shall appear that he has any such disease or other disability as may render him permanently unable to perform service under contract, and if the employer shall send to the Immigration Agent-General a certificate of the death, disease, or disability of such immigrant, under the hand of one of the medical officers, the Immigration Agent-General may declare the contract void, and the indenture fee paid in respect of such immigrant shall thereupon become repayable to the employer out of the Immigration Fund. 47. Every The Northern Territory Indian Immigration Act.--1882. 47. Every immigrant indentured for five years, on introduction PART V. to the said Territory, shall be furnished by his employer with a livret, The livret. or book of work, which shall contain (a) A receptacle for the safe keeping of his certificate of inden ture, or other papers: (b). Such popular statements of his obligations and rights, under this Act or otherwise, legibly printed in his own vernacular tongue, as shall be from time to time put forth by the Immigration Agent-General with the approval of the Governor: Provided that such statement shall not have any legislative force in contravention of this Act, or validity by way of contract as between the immigrant and his employer: (c) Three thousand six hundred and forty blank squares or spaces symmetrically arranged in such manner as is delineated in the Schedule No. 1. hereunto annexed, or shall be from time to time sanctioned by the Immigration Ageut-General in that behalf. 48. Every immigrant shall be required to present his livret to The livret task. the manager weekly upon the weekly pay-day to be made up, and thereupon the manager shall draw a line through or otherwise cancel one of the spaces for every Sixpence which the immigrant shall have earned since his last presentation of the same, and shall carry over any sum less than Sixpence and enter the same on the next succeeding blank space, and insert in such space the date of payment; and on the next presentation of such livret he shall add the said balance to the sum then earned, and proceed as before, and shall return the livret so made up to the immigrant at latest on the next day but one before the next weekly pay-day. 49. In the case of the loss by an indentured immigrant of his Loss of livret. livret, the employer shall be bound to furnish him with another livret upon payment by such immigrant of Eight Shillings, and shall fully make up such new livret to the current date by the cancelling of so many spaces as shall correspond to the earnings of such immigrant since the date of his indenture. 50. So soon as all the spaces in the livret shall have been Termination of indensigned, or become due for signature, the indenture of the immigrant ture by livret work. holding it shall absolutely cease and be determined. as to livrets. 51. In case of any dispute in respect of entries made or omitted Procedure in disputes to be made in the livret arising between an employer and his indentured immigrant, the party aggrieved may lay a complaint before any Justice of the Peace, who shall have power to hear, try, and determine the dispute, and to make such order in the premises as to him shall seem just, and shall direct by whom and in what proportion PART V. Computation of commutation money. Commutation by husband or wife. Commutation by mother. Transfer of Indian threatening his wife. The Northern Territory Indian Immigration Act.-1882. proportion the costs of such proceedings shall be paid; and every such order shall be final and without appeal. 52. The commutation money payable under this Act, on the termination or transfer of the indenture of any immigrant on introduction, shall be calculated at the rate, for every year or portion of the year remaining unexpired of such indenture, of one-fifth of the indenture fee payable by the employer in respect of such indenture, together with interest thereon at the rate of Six Pounds per centum per annum since the commencement of such indenture, and all such commutation money shall be paid to the Immigration Fund, and shall be payable thereout to the employer. 53. Any immigrant under indenture who shall be married to a wife or husband on any other plantation shall be entitled, upon giving three months' notice to the employer, to determine his or her own indenture on payment of the commutation money; and if the employer of such wife or husband shall, by the request of the commuting immigrant, advance the commutation money, the commuting immigrant may be re-indentured to such employer for a period equal to the unexpired remainder of the indenture so commuted. 54. On termination of the indenture of any female immigrant, whether by expiration in due course, by commutation, or otherwise, she shall be entitled to remove with her, from the plantation, her minor and infant children, on payment of the commutation money. for any such minor under indenture, in respect of whose indenture the employer shall have paid any indenture fee or bounty; and if such female immigrant shall remove in order to become indentured to a new employer, and such employer shall advance, by her request, the commutation money of any such minor immigrant, the minor may be re-indentured to such employer for the unexpired remainder of the indenture so commuted. 55. Upon information laid before any Justice of the Peace by the manager of a plantation, or by a female Indian immigrant, or any other person on her behalf, that the husband of such female immigrant, or her betrothed or reputed husband, according to the custom of the country, or any Indian immigrant with whom she may cohabit or may have cohabited, did unlawfully threaten to murder, wound, beat, or illtreat her, and that from any such threats she apprehends, or has reason to apprehend, any bodily harm or injury, such Justice of the Peace shall forthwith issue his warrant for the apprehension of the immigrant alleged to have used such threats; and any immigrant using such threats shall be guilty of an offence, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be liable to be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for such term not exceeding one month as the convicting Justice of the Peace shall direct; and upon such information, whether the immigrant accused shall be convicted or otherwise, if it shall appear that any threats used by such immigrant were occasioned The Northern Territory Indian Immigration Act.—1882. occasioned by jealousy, in regard to such female immigrant, of any other person employed on the plantation, it shall be lawful for the Justice of the Peace in his discretion to make order for the removal from the plantation of any such person being an indentured immigrant, or of any such female immigrant threatened, or of any immigrant using such threats, who may be indentured to such plantation, whichever shall in his judgment be most expedient, and may direct any immigrant so ordered to be removed to be detained in custody until his transfer to some other plantation; and the Justice of the Peace shall forward a copy of any such proceedings to the Immigration Agent-General, and the Immigration AgentGeneral may permit any such immigrant to commute or may transfer him to any other employer willing to accept his services, and to pay the commutation money. PART V. of Government 56. If it shall at any time appear to the Government Resident, Transfer at discretion on sufficient ground shown to his satisfaction, that all or any of Resident. the immigrants indentured on any plantation should be removed therefrom, it shall be lawful for him to transfer the indentures of such immigrants for the remainder of their respective terms of service to any other employer who may be willing to accept their services, and to pay the commutation money. 57. Every lessee of a plantation whose term of lease shall expire Lessee entitled to before the termination of the indenture of any immigrant indentured transfer. to him on such plantation shall be entitled to have such immigrant transferred for the unexpired remainder of his term of service to any employer approved of by the Immigration Agent-General, who may be willing to accept his services, and to pay the commutation money: Provided that of any such employers the first option of having such transfer made to him shall be with the lessor of the plantation. obligation of 58. In the event of any plantation on which an immigrant may Subsistence of the be under indenture being sold either by public or private contract indenture. or by judicial process, or being leased, or devolving by inheritance, devise, or otherwise, he shall render the same service to the purchaser, lessee, devisee, heir, or other new employer, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, and for the same term as he would have been bound to render to his original employer. 59. The Immigration Agent-General may, at the joint request of any employer and his indentured immigrant, allow the indenture of such immigrant to be determined, and may, at the request of any employer, allow all or any of the immigrants indentured to such employer on any plantation to be removed to any other plantation in the possession or under the management of the same employer, and may allow such immigrants to be temporarily transferred for any term not exceeding twelve months to any plantation the owner of which shall be willing to accept their services, and during such term such immigrants shall be deemed to be indentured to such other Permissible deter mination, removal, and temporary transfer. |