2-114 (Text)

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This Colony is made the receptacle for the outcasts of the United Kingdom; and is consequently loaded with a vast disproportion of immoral people. That the Colonists have derived many advantages from the transportation of Convicts, cannot be denied - but the system has brought with it a long train of moral evils, which can only be counteracted by an extensive introduction of free and virtuous inhabitants - and the only means upon which the Colonists can safely rely for accomplishing this vital object, is the revenue arising from the sale of lands. It is for these reasons that Your Committee are anxious to record their opinion, as well as that of the whole community of the Colony, that the funds arising from the sale of lands should be appropriated exclusively to the purpose of introducing a moral and industrious population - that they consider this appropriation alike indispensable to the present interests, and the future prosperity and character of the Colony - and that they regard the opinion expressed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and approved by the Lords of the Treasury, in the light of a pledge by His Majesty's Government, that the Crown Lands of the Colony shall be held sacred to the promotion of Immigration.