will be allowed to steer out under the modified rules by which up to the present time I have been guided in granting Certificates — whilst rules,
Lieutenant Cracroft is aware — limited the number to be envied by space alone and not by tonnage, and declared in a slight degree the Proclamation of 3/4 December, 1853.
I am informed that in some cases considerable loss would accrue to the charterers if the Act were strictly enforced, and though it is true that the provisional rules were known to be of a temporary character, liable at any time to be rescinded and not necessarily carrying with them any weight at the port of debarkation, yet I think the Lieutenant Governor will agree that it would be unjust and impolitic to give this more stringent enforcement of the Act a retrospective application, and that the Immigration Agent should be empowered to follow the former practice in respect to those ships not chartered under the bona fide impression that existing regulations would just be abrogated without due notice.
Much the Lieutenant Governor should weigh well the facts in each particular instance, and allow...
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(No change is made in the last line "DEX" as there is not enough context to make a proper correction or assumption of what it represents.)