VAN DIEMEN'S LAND COMPANY, a receipt for the Fourth Instalment being the Second payment on 15 shares amounting to £18.15.-, signed at bottom left by Sam R Ewen, clerk, at the left side is the printer's name, Robson, Blades, & Co. Printers, Abchurch Lane (Lombard St, London), on the reverse is signed at the top, A.G.Campbell Esq (a director of the company), and below, '8 Octr 1829/Receipt for 2d/Instalment for/15 Shares in/V.D.Land Comp/for A Casander/£18.15/(illegible initials)'. Two folds, otherwise good very fine.
The Van Diemen's Land Company is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania which was founded in 1825 in England. The company entered into agricultural and pastoral pursuits on land they rented from the government. They established their headquarters at Circular Head and agricultural settlements at Woolnorth, Emu Bay, Hampshire Hills, Surrey Hills and also Circular Head. They introduced pure strains of sheep, cattle and horses; built bridges and constructed roads; surveyed and opened roads along the coast and inland from Emu Bay through the Surrey Hills and Middlesex Plains to Chudleigh; erected jetties; imported immigrants, implements and seeds; fostered commerce with Australian ports and contributed greatly to the early development of Tasmania. In 2016 there was great controversy over the sale of this historic company, now Australia's largest dairy firm, to a Chinese company, Moon Lake Investments.