NRS-5283 | Register of free railway passes for the unemployed

Full description

The Agent for Immigration was responsible for approving applications for free railway passes. The majority of these passes were issued to unemployed men to enable them to proceed to various country districts in New South Wales to seek employment on railway works, (1) or in the rabbit infested areas. (2) The applicants were required to present a written certificate showing the date of their arrival in the Colony, and provide details of previous employment history. (3) Free railway passes were also issued to aged or infirmed persons who had left either the Liverpool or Parramatta Asylums, or who had been discharged from Sydney Hospital. Under exceptional circumstances, passes were occasionally issued to women. (4)

The Agent for Immigration was required to send monthly returns of free passes (granted and refused) to the Commissioner of Railways (5), and the Colonial Secretary. The returns of free passes issued to the unemployed appeared in the Annual Report of Railway Commissioners.

These registers record the names of those persons who had applied for free railway passes. Each entry notes the following details about an applicant: date, name, how long in the colony, trade, how previously employed, age, nationality, if married, number of children and ages of children, proposed destination, receipt of pass, and a remarks column. It is noted in the remarks column if the application was granted or refused. Occasionally a reason is given if the application was refused.

Throughout each volume there are monthly and/or yearly returns of free railway passes. These returns provide statistical information about categories of people applying for passes, i.e. The number of married men, single men, those men who could write, those who couldn’t write, as well as the numbers applying from Great Britain, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, Italy, New Zealand, America, Cape Colony, Germany, China and other countries.

Pencil annotations in the front of each volume indicate that they were transferred from the office of the Chief Secretary in 1934.

Endnotes
1. NRS 5250, Immigration Agent, Copies of letters sent, 7 July 1883, pp.779-781 [4/4661].
2. NRS 5239, Immigration, Letters received, 7 August 1883 [9/6256].
3. loc. cit. Copies of letters sent.
4. loc. cit. Copies of letters sent.
5. loc. cit. Copies of letters sent.