Among the port regulations existing at the colony, is one which directs that no vessel shall put to sea without having previously mustered the passengers and crew at the Secretary's office, where their names, and other particulars respecting them, are to be formally taken down. The reason assigned for this order is plausible enough; to prevent convicts from making their escape, and debtors from running away without settling with their creditors: but, as a fee of half a crown is required from each individual, even after his character is proved to be correct, I cannot help thinking that all this preventive caution is used only to fill the purse of the Governor's secretary, who makes no inconsiderable sum by this species of exaction. Mr. Marsden and the New Zealand chiefs were obliged to submit to this demand; and however extremely proper it may be, to preserve an active vigilance over the abandoned and unprincipled, I can see no reason why men of integrity should pay for being approved, and be subject to a regulation, which, in justice, ought never to affect them. The form made use of on these occasions, will be seen by the following specification, which is the clearance of our vessel, the brig Active, 110 tons, for New Zealand.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.