LOUISIANA. DIGEST OF IMMIGRATION AND ALIEN LAWS. Act of 1866 (an act to organize a bureau of immigration, to prescribe the duties thereof, and to provide for the expenses of the same). The act of 1866 granted power to establish a bureau of immigration in New Orleans for the purpose of encouraging immigration to the State by diffusing information abroad and protecting and assisting such immigrants as may settle therein. The governor shall appoint a bureau chief at the annual salary of $3,500. It shall be the duty of the chief to collect, compile, publish, and diffuse complete data about the State's interests, resources, and advantages. Act of 1869 (an act to reorganize the bureau of emigration, and for measures to develop the resources and increase the population and wealth of the State).-The act of 1869 provides for the appointment of six commissioners of emigration "to attract emigration and capital to Louisiana, and to aid in developing her resources. The commissioners shall have general supervision of measures for inducing, regulating, or excluding immigration. Masters of vessels shall report general facts about foreign passengers entering Louisiana ports. Provision is made for bonds and commutation. Foreigners likely to become a public charge shall be excluded, unless bond is given to indemnify the State against expense. Provision shall be made for foreigners who may become public charges. Agents and clerks shall be appointed. An annual report shall be submitted to the legislature. The governor shall fill vacancies on the board. Penalties accruing shall be sued for and recovered. Commissioners shall not make contracts with the board. Property of deceased emigrants shall be duly cared for and distributed. The commissioners shall keep a complete register of emigrants; and shall publish statistical data about all matters of interest to the settler or investor. Emigrant depots shall be maintained and emigrants cared for temporarily. A labor exchange shall be conducted. Information about lands and homesteads shall be furnished emigrants. Act of 1874.-The act of 1874 repeals the act of 1869, creating the commission of immigration, to establish a bureau of immigration, together with proper police regulations for the government, supervision, and protection of immigrants arriving at the port of New Orleans; to save the State harmless from the importation from foreign countries of such persons as are apt to become charges upon the State; and to increase the revenue of the Charity Hospital. The essential provisions are otherwise similar to those of the act repealed. Act of 1894 (agriculture and immigration).-An act was passed in 1894 to create a bureau of agriculture and immigration; to prescribe its powers and duties; to provide for the appointment of a commissioner of agriculture and immigration; to fix his salary; and to provide for the expenses of the bureau. IMMIGRATION AND ALIEN LAWS. ACT OF 1869. [Louisiana State Laws, 1866, No. 105, p. 198.] AN ACT To organize a bureau of immigration, to prescribe the duties thereof, and to provide for the expenses of the same. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Louisiana, in general assembly convened, That a bureau of immigration shall be, and is hereby, established in the city of New Orleans for the purpose of encouraging immigration to the State of Louisiana by diffusing information abroad and protecting and assisting such immigrants as may settle therein. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That the bureau established by the first section of this act shall be under the charge of a citizen of the State of Louisiana, who shall be entitled chief of bureau. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That the chief of said bureau of immigration shall be appointed by the governor of the State, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, for the term of two years, whose salary shall be thirty-five hundred dollars per annum, to be paid quarterly on his own warrant on the state treasurer, approved by the auditor of public accounts. SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the chief of the bureau of immigration to collect and have published in English, French, and German, and such other languages as he may think proper, statistical information setting forth the advantages of soil, climate, and productions which Louisiana presents to the enterprising immigrant; to publish and distribute abroad, in the aforesaid languages and such others as he may select, this act of the general assembly, and all other acts thereof as may relate to the encouragement of immigration and the protection of the immigrant; to appoint agents of immigration in foreign countries, whose salaries shall not exceed the sum of five hundred dollars each per annum, and whose members shall not exceed five, to assist any and all immigrants from said countries who may desire to settle in Louisiana by giving counsel and information; in making contracts for public means of transportation; to bring to the port of New Orleans at the lowest rates of passage possible such immigrants as may elect to come to said port, and to make arrangements with steamboats, railroads, and other public means of transportation to convey immigrants who may elect to settle in Louisiana to their places of destination in a comfortable manner and at the least expense possible; to use every effort to inform, advise, and assist immigrants to Louisiana in order to protect them against imposition or false information; to negotiate with any steamship company to place a line of two or more steamers between New Orleans and Bremen and other foreign ports from which large numbers of persons emigrate to the United States; to visit and examine all vessels landing at the port of New Orleans which have immigrants on board, and to make a register of such immigrants, showing names, age, places of birth, sex, profession, trade, and destination, which register shall be filed in his office; to report to the bureau of immigration of the United States at Washington City all infractions of the passenger acts of the United States; to make a report annually to the general assembly of the State of the number of immigrants who have arrived, with a tabular statement showing ages, places of birth, sex, trade, profession, and destination of all immigrants who may have arrived during the year at the port of New Orleans, together with such information and recommendations as in his opinion may promote immigration to the State of Louisiana, together with a full statement of the expenses and operations of the bureau: Provided, Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to make the State liable for the passage money of any immigrant coming into this State. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, etc., That the chief of bureau shall have power to appoint one or more clerks, as may be found necessary, not to exceed three, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum. SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, etc., That the sum of fifteen thousand dollars be, and is hereby appropriated to pay the salaries of the chief of the bureau of immigration and expenses of said bureau, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, etc., That this act shall take effect from and after its passage. J. B. ELAM, Speaker pro tem. of the House of Representatives. Lieutenant-Governor and President of the Senate. AN ACT To reorganize the bureau of emigration and for measures to develop the resources and increase the population and wealth of the State of Louisiana. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the State of Louisiana in general assembly convened, That in order to attract emigration and capital to Louisiana and to aid in developing her resources, the governor is hereby authorized and directed, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to appoint six commissioners, two of whom shall hold their office for the term of two years, two for four years, and two for six years, and upon the expiration of their several terms of office their places shall be filled, as aforesaid, for the term of six years. The governor of this State and the president of the German Society shall, by virtue of their respective offices, be commissioners as aforesaid. The said commissioners shall be known as the "commissioners of emigration," and by that title shall be capable of suing and being sued. The said commissioners shall appoint one of their number to act as president of the board and general agent for the commission; all money appropriated for said commission by the general assembly or received for commutation, as hereafter provided, shall be paid out on the warrant of said commissioners or a majority of them. It shall be the duty of the said commissioners to provide for the maintenance and support of such of the persons for whom commutation money shall have been paid, as hereinafter provided, or on whose accounts bonds shall have been taken, as would otherwise become a charge upon any city, town, or parish of this State; and the said commissioners shall appropriate the moneys for that purpose in such manner as to indemnify so far as may be the several cities, towns, and parishes of the State for any expense or charge which may be incurred for the maintenance and support of the persons hereinafter mentioned. And the more fully to effect the object contemplated by this act, the said commissioners are authorized to apply in their discretion any part of the said money to aid in removing any of said persons from any part of the State to another part of this or any other State, or from this State, or in assisting them to procure employment and thus prevent them from becoming a public charge. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That within twenty-four hours after the landing of any passenger or passengers from any ship or vessel arriving at the port of New Orleans from any of the United States other than this State, or from any country out of the United States, the master or commander of the ship or vessel from which such passenger or passengers shall have been landed, shall make a report in writing, on oath or affirmation, to the "commissioners of emigration," or to such person as they may designate and appoint as their agent, which report shall state the name, place of birth, last legal residence, age, and occupation of every person or passenger who shall have been landed from such ship or vessel on her last voyage to said port not being a citizen of the United States, and who shall have within the last twelve months arrived from any country out of the United States at any place within the United States, and who shall not have paid the commutation money or been bonded according to the provisions of this act; the same report shall contain a like statement of all such persons or passengers aforesaid as shall have been landed or suffered to land from any such ship or vessel at any place during such last voyage, or who shall have been put on board or suffered to go on board of any other ship, vessel, or boat with the intention of proceeding to and landing at the said city of New Orleans or elsewhere within the limits of this State. The said report shall further specify whether any of said passengers so reported are lunatic, idiot, deaf, dumb, blind, infirm, maimed, or above the age of sixty years, also designating all such passengers as shall be under the age of thirteen, or widows having families, or women without husbands having families, with the names and ages of their families, and shall further specify particularly the names, last place of residence, and ages of all passengers who may have died during the last said voyage of such vessel, also the names and residences of the owner or owners of such vessel. In case any such master or commander shall omit or neglect to report as aforesaid any such person or passenger, with the particulars aforesaid, or shall make any false report or statement in respect to any such person or passengers, or in respect to the owner or owners of any such vessel, or in respect to the particulars hereinbefore specified, such master or commander shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars for every such passenger, in regard to whom any such omission or neglect shall have occurred, or any such false report or statement shall be made, for which the owner or owners, consignee or consignees of every such ship or vessel shall also be liable, jointly and severally, and which may be sued for and recovered as hereinafter provided. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the said commissioners of emigration or their appointed agent, by an indorsement to be made on said report, to require the owner or consignee of the ship or vessel from which such persons were landed to give a several bond to the people of the State in a penalty of three hundred dollars for each and every person or passenger included in said report, such bond being secured as hereinafter provided and conditioned to indemnify and save harmless the commissioners of emigration and each and every city, town, and parish in this State from any costs which said commissioners or such city, town, or parish shall incur for the relief or support of the person named in the bond within five years from the date of such bonds, and also to indemnify and refund to the said commissioners of emigration any expense or charge they may necessarily incur for the support or medical care of the persons named therein. Each and every bond shall be secured by two or more sufficient securities, being residents of the State of Louisiana, each of whom shall prove by oath or otherwise that he is owner of a freehold in the State of the value of three hundred dollars over and above all and any claim or lien thereon or against him, including therein any contingent claim which may accrue from or upon any former bond given under the provisions of this act; or such bond may, at the option of the party, be secured by mortgage of real estate or by pledge and transfer of public stock of the United States or of the State of Louisiana, or of the city of New Orleans, or by deposit of the amount of penalty in some bank or trust company, such security, real or personal, having been first approved by the said commissioners of emigration. It shall be lawful for any owner or consignee, at any time within twenty-four hours after the landing of such persons or passengers from any ship or vessel in port of New Orleans, except as in the section herein provided, to commute for the bond or bonds so required by paying to the commissioners of emigration or their appointed agent the sum of two dollars for each and every passenger reported by him as by law required; the receipt. of such sum by said commissioner or agent shall be deemed a full and sufficient discharge from the requirements of giving bonds as above provided, but no owner or consignee shall be authorized to commute for the bond so required for any passenger arriving in the port of New Orleans who may be sent to any hospital from shipboard by the health officer or by the authority of the board of health of the city of New Orleans on account of illness from ship fever, cholera, or yellow fever; the commissioners of emigration shall have authority to commute specially for any bond in such cases at such rates and in such manner as shall appear to them equitable and proper. It shall be the duty of the health officer to report without delay to the commissioners of emigration the names of all passengers sent by his |