Founder of the “New Colonization System”
England and America. A Comparison of the Social and Politcal State of Both Nations.
London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1833.
First Edition. xii, 331, [1]; iv, 341, [1] pp. 2 vols. 8vo. Founder of the “New Colonization System”. Contemporary quarter tan calf and marbled boards. Ticket of R.E. Narby, Bookseller & Printer, Warminster. Bookplate. Fine Kress C3643; McCulloch's “Literature of Political Economy” 1845. p 94; Sabin 100976; Palgrave III p. 648; Goldsmiths' 27890. Item #247284
Following imprisonment, Wakefield began to study colonial affairs of Australia with an eye towards immigration. Recognizing that the depressed condition of Australian affairs was due to a lack of efficiency and sensible handling he gathered his theories for correcting the problems and first published them in “A Letter from Sydney” (London 1829) under the name Robert Gouger. It was so well done that the author was supposed to be an immigrant. He revised and refined these views for his “New Colonization System” in “England and America” as the chapter the “Art of Colonisation.” The theories for his “System” were to abolish free grants of agricultural land, requiring a fixed price which would be kept low enough so that a laborer would be able to purchase land after a few years [this to reduce the number of ex-convicts laborers from receiving land for which they had no use], to regulate immigration and to use tax monies from the rental of grants to bring laborers to the colonies. One of the main results of his publications and efforts was the founding of the National Colonization Society and then the South Australian Association, the latter intended to be based upon Wakefield's theories. He was also a close advisor to the Molesworth Committee. On the appointment of Lord Durham to Canada in 1838, Wakefield became interested in that territory and is credited with having greatly assisted Durham with his famous “Report on the Affairs of British North America.” He also acted as an adviser to Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe in Canada in the 1840's. In 1837 Wakefield had formed the New Zealand Association and spent most of years following directing the affairs of the association from England while his brother William Hayward Wakefield directed and managed it from New Zealand.
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