Item HT 16866 Letter - S. Whitehead to George White, Receipt of Assisted Passage Application, 5 Jan 1912

Summary

Letter from S. Whitehead, Official Representative for Artisan Immigration, to Mr George White in Stockport, England, dated 5 January. The letter acknowledges receipt of the assisted passage application form. It explains that requests to bring families is not possible due to limited accommodation on board the ships and that married men should subsequently nominate their families for reduced rate fares.

Description of Content

Letter to Mr George White in Stockport England from S. Whitehead, Official Representative for Artisan Immigration. The letter acknowledges receipt of the assisted passage application form. It explains that requests to bring families is not possible due to limited accommodation on board the ships and that married men should subsequently nominate their families for reduced rate fares. The letter is dated 5/1/1912.

Physical Description

Single page letter typed letter with letterhead titled: 'Victorian Land Settlement and Emigration Department.'

Significance

This small collection of documents traces the process of one man's application for artisan assisted passage, illustrating the agencies involved, the targeting of particular categories of migrants, and the assistance available to immigrants from the UK. It is a period when the states still controlled assisted migration selection and intake, prior to the Commonwealth assuming this responsibility in1921. The documents reflect the tenor of the era for proactive recruitment of migrants for the UK and the collaborative arrangements between immigration and related agents in Britain and Australia to encourage British migration.