South Australia Act 1834

The full name of the act was "An Act to empower His Majesty to erect South Australia into a British Province or Provinces and to provide for the Colonization and Government thereof".[1][2][Note 1] Its chapter number is 4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 95, meaning the 95th act that was passed in the reign of William IV, in the session of Parliament that started in the fourth year of his reign and finished in the fifth.

South Australia Act 1834 and Foundation Act 1834[1][3] were the official short titles of the Act, which is also referred to in the literature as the South Australian Colonization Act.[4]

Robert Gouger, who had edited Edward Gibbon Wakefield's Letter from Sydney (1829), had led a campaign to persuade the British government to help to bring about Wakefield's colonisation scheme. In 1831 the South Australian Land Company (SALC), which lobbied for a Royal Charter to establish a colony in Australia which would be administered by those who were developing the land in the colony, with the sales of the land financing assistance to certain categories of emigrants to the colony. Not getting government approval for a chartered colony, supporters then formed the South Australian Association in 1834, with a similar aim. Finally this resulted in the passage of the 1834 Act, although the provisions did not quite match up to those of their original scheme.[1] The Duke of Wellington, Irish-born field marshal and statesman, and victor at Waterloo, has been credited with securing the passage of the Act through the House of Lords.[5]

The 1834 Act set out the conditions for the establishment of the Province of South Australia, and granted authority for this to be done by the action of the King at a later date. By the means provided for in this Act, South Australia would become the only colony whose establishment was authorised by an Act of Parliament, and also incorporated unique features such as the requirement that it would be settled and developed at no cost to the United Kingdom.[1]

In February 1836 King William IV signed the Letters Patent, signalling the final action needed to establish the Province under this Act. This Act and the Letters Patent together achieved the founding of the colony, but with Wakefield's original plan failing to provide effective governance, having brought the colony to near-bankruptcy, a second Act was enacted in 1842 to bring the colony under direct rule of the Crown.[1]

The Act recognised that these lands were inhabitable, and made provision for colonisation, government, and the funding of the new settlement on these lands. The Act states that the land specified by the Act is "waste" and "unoccupied".[2] This statement was subsequently modified slightly by the Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia in 1836, which acknowledged some rights and occupation by Aboriginal people.[6][Note 2]

The Act specifically provided for a limited independence of Government, whereby all laws made by the government in South Australia were to be presented to the King-in-Council in the United Kingdom. The Act defined the province of South Australia as being "...that part of Australia which lies between the meridians of the one hundred and thirty-second and one hundred and forty-first degrees of east longitude, and between the southern ocean and the twenty-six degrees of south latitude, together with all and every the islands adjacent thereto, and the bays and gulphs".[2] However, the Act gave control of the new colony to the Colonial Office as well as the Commissioners, which led to tension between the two and caused problems later.[8]

The money raised by the sale and leasing of land constituted what was called an Emigration Fund which was to be applied to the cost of conveying further immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, in equal proportions of men and women, under 30 years of age. The colony was to be convict-free. The Act specified that those immigrating to South Australia, under the Emigration Fund, should be a married couple under the age of thirty, and that they both, along with any children they had, must immigrate to South Australia. The Act also specifically forbade the transportation of convicts to South Australia.[2]

The Act allowed for three or more appointed Commissioners, called the "Colonization Commissioners for South Australia", to oversee the sale and leasing of land in South Australia to British subjects. The Commissioners were empowered by the Act in a number of areas. They were able to appoint officers, delegate responsibilities, and make payment for the services provided. They were empowered to seek financing for the costs of starting the settlement. One method specifically prescribed in the Act was for the issuing of bonds under the seal of the Commissioners in two separate and distinct areas. Firstly, they were able to issue what was named "South Australia public lands securities" up to a sum of 50,000 pounds. This financing was to pay for the cost of transporting immigrants, until the time when the funds from land sales was sufficient to cover the cost of transportation. Secondly, they were able to issue what was named "South Australian Colonial Revenue Securities", up to a sum of £200,000. This funding was a public debt on the colonial governance, which was to provide money for the operation of the settlement. It was to be repaid by the rates and taxes imposed on the colonists. The Commissioners were required to submit to Parliament once a year a full and detailed report of the proceedings in South Australia.[2]

The Act authorised the appointment of trustees, who would oversee a guarantee against the expense of settling South Australia, purchased out of the funds raised as South Australian Colonial Revenue Securities. This guarantee could be either Exchequer bills (banknotes) or other government securities in England. The amount was specified as £20,000.[2]

The Act provided for the establishment of local government, specifying that the local population should exceed 50,000 people.[2]

The Act allowed for the liquidation of public land, if at the end of a ten-year period, the population of the province or provinces had not reached 20,000 "natural born Subjects of His Majesty". This was to also repay any remaining debts of the South Australian Public Lands Securities.[2]

The Act further specified that the Province was to be self-sufficient; £20,000 surety had to be raised and invested in the government securities or Exchequer bills, and £35,000 worth of land had to be sold in the new colony before any settlement was permitted. These conditions were fulfilled by the close of 1835. The Act specifies the minimum price of land at twelve shillings sterling per English acre, and for the selling price of land to be an equal price per acre, irrespective of the quality of the land.[2]

• British colonisation of South Australia
• Terra nullius#Australia

• The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 and 3 Victoria, 1839 (Classic Reprint): Volumes 32-33 of The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain. Fb&c Limited. 1838. pp. 835–837. ISBN 9781010593102. (South Australia Government Act 1838, 1 & 2 Vic, c. 60)