Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
Emigration Office
3 March 1860
Sir
We have to acknowledge your letter of 24th instant transmitting for our information extracts of letters received from Capt Clarke R.E. formerly Surveyor General of Victoria, pointing out the course to be adopted for allowing Settlers in British Columbia to occupy and cultivate Crown Land before it has been surveyed.
2. In obedience to the directions Manuscript image in the last paragraph of your letter we return the sketch of an Order in Council which accompanied Capt. Clarke's second letter. As this sketch had been referred for Governor Douglas' report we abstain from offering any observations on it. But we may be allowed to point out that an arrangement which might be inevitable in Victoria, where the population rose in less than two years from 77,000 to 157,000, would not have the same justification in B. Columbia, where at the latest date the Manuscript image population did not exceed 5,000.
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
ABd 6/3
Put by.
TFE 6 March
HM Mh 6
CF 7
N 7