VICTORIA.
The Passengers, Harbours, and Navigation Statute, 1865 (No. 255), enacts as follows in secs. 36-39:—
Bond to be given for passengers being lunatic, etc.
36. If the immigration officer, or assistant immigration officer, shall certify that any passenger shall have arrived in Victoria on board any ship as aforesaid (i.e. any British or foreign navigable vessel of any kind carrying passengers, except vessels plying from any one port in Victoria to any other port therein) being either lunatic, idiotic, deaf, dumb, blind, or infirm, and likely, in his opinion, to become a charge upon the public, or upon any public or charitable institution, the immigration officer shall require the owner, charterer, or master of such ship, within seven days after her arrival to execute with two sufficient sureties, jointly and severally, a bond to her Majesty in the sum of 100l. for every such passenger, conditioned to pay to the Treasurer of Victoria all moneys or expenses which shall or may be laid out or incurred within the space of five years from the execution of the said bond for the maintenance or support of such passenger; and the said sureties shall justify before and to the satisfaction of the said immigration officer, and shall by their oath or affirmation satisfy him that they are respectively residents in Victoria, and each worth treble the amount of the penalty of such bond over and above all their liabilities.
Principal immigration agent to report as to forfeiture.
37. If any passenger for whom any bond shall have been given as aforesaid, shall at any time within five years from the execution thereof receive maintenance or support from any public or charitable institution in Victoria, the payment incurred for the maintenance and support of such passenger shall be provided for out of the money collected in and under such bond to the extent of the penalty therein mentioned, or such portion as shall be required for the payment of such maintenance or support; and it shall be the duty of the principal immigration agent, upon representation made to him, to ascertain the right and claim of the Treasurer of Victoria to payment of the amount so expended for the maintenance and support of any such passenger, and to report the same to the Governor in Council; and the said report shall be conclusive in the matter, and shall be evidence of the facts therein stated; and such bond may be put in suit, and the penalty, or as much thereof as shall be required to defray the expenses of such maintenance or support, may be recovered by suit or information on behalf of her Majesty, and in the name of a law officer in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Penalty for refusing to execute bond.
38. If the owner, charterer, or master of any ship on board which such passengers, specially reported, shall have been carried, shall neglect or refuse to execute a bond as aforesaid within seven days, after being so required as aforesaid, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 100l. sterling, in addition to his liability under the said bond; and such ship shall not be cleared out until the said bond shall have been executed, and the said penalties shall have been paid.
Act not to extend to Government immigrants, etc.
39. These provisions ... shall not extend to immigrants brought to Victoria at the public expense, nor to shipwrecked mariners brought to Victoria without charge by the master of some other ship than that in which they were wrecked, nor to the crews of ships who shall have signed articles for the whole voyage, nor to her Majesty's land and sea forces.