At
Mr Blackwood's suggestion I have looked into this matter,
and have reperused for my own satisfaction all the despatches from
the Governor and all the reports of the Land Board which we possess
on the subject.
The single practical question however at this moment pending is
what notice to take of a casual remark made by
Governor Douglas. In
the course of a report on the general state of affairs, he laments
the slow progress of Surveys, and throws out the idea that perhaps it
may
obligeoblige him to permit the occupation of Lands, without their being
surveyed, on license.
Mr Murdoch has pointed out that this course
has been followed by evil consequences elsewhere. Upon the question
so raised, some weighty and interesting remarks have been made in the
Minutes in our Office.
Captn Clarke (formerly of
Victoria)
having mentioned that he had some experience of licenses, was asked
for further information; and he has answered by sending in no less
than the draft of a long draft of an Order to be passed by Her
Majesty's Council, consisting of many Chapters and Sections;
andand
minutely regulating the whole treatment of land in
British Columbia.
Captn Clarke should doubless be thanked for the great labor
which this task must have cost him, but whatever may be the merit in
other respects of his views, I think it will probably be agreed that
the idea of regulation by Order in Council should be dismissed. For
legislation of the proposed kind from an Office in Whitehall would be
certain to excite a spirit of resistance in the Colony and to be
condemned in this Country as an unwise dictation in
mattersmatters of detail.
My own experience in such matters has led me to be humble in my
anticipations of what can be effected, and yet it has been somewhat
extensive. It is rather more than 30 years since I wrote an Abstract
of the effects at that period of licenses of occupation in New
South Wales. The same paper also reviewed the first land regulations,
and the reports of their operation, in
New South Wales
and Tasmania, and in the North American Colonies. Since that time I
have seen the creation of the Colonies of
WesternWestern Australia, South
Australia, Port Phillip, New Zealand, and also such smaller or more
exceptional Settlements as
the Falklands, Hong Kong and Labuan. In
the larger of those Colonies three quarters of a Million of
Englishmen are now settled upon many millions of acres, which, at the
date to which I refer, were either desert or inhabited only by Native
Tribes. I can well remember the devising of the several land
regulations for these places; the hopes with which we saw
enterprizing adventurers start for them; the complaints which we
received from many who were disappointed; and above all the numerous
reports
bothboth upon those parts of the successive regulations which
were found to be beneficial, and upon those others which proved to
be injurious. Of course it is impossible for any man however
unobservant to have been a witness of such a long series of kindred
events without forming some general opinions, and in this sense he
will be in danger of becoming justly liable to the designation of
doctrinaire. He will be
doctrinaire in the sense in which a
Physician is doctrinaire about medicine, or a lawyer about law, or
any one else about any subject with which he is sufficiently
conversant to expect that similar consequences
willwill flow from similar
causes.
And yet after all the long years, and the Multiplied
experiments of vast extent to which I have above referred, so far
should I be from being presumptuous that I believe that the truths
about land which are worth enouncing from England are extremely few
and elementary. The following are perhaps the chief of them:
That land should be disposed of by sale and not by grants:
That it should be sold (unless under some overruling
necessity)necessity)
for cash and not for credit:
That lots in Towns or in the neighbourhood of Towns should
always be sold by competition:
But that ordinary Country lots, after being once exposed to
Auction, should be purchaseable at the upset price as a fixed price,
so that settlers need not be obliged to wait for periodical public
sales:
That the Territory should be divided into reasonably small lots,
forming aliquot parts of square miles.
These seem to me the leading
principlesprinciples which ought to be aimed
at in settling a new Country with people of European race, but then,
with the exception of the second, to which their attention has been
drawn and which must be admitted not to be of universal application,
they are the very principles which have been adopted and carried into
effect by the local authorities in
British Columbia. They have been
willingly adopted, most of them before even hearing on the
subjectsubject
from England, so that it may be presumed that they are not contrary
to the wants and wishes or to the judgment of those residing on the spot.
But then there remains the question about occupation upon
License. The Governor, conscious of the evils that would attend his
being unable to put Settlers promptly on their lands, naturally
contemplates the simplest and most obvious remedy.
Mr Murdoch on
the other hand with equal propriety points out that this remedy is in
other cases being followed by very injurious effects. It seems to me
that it is unnecessary for the Secretary of State to pronounce any
universal or authoritative decision on the subject.
Governor Douglas
does not yet know that he will experience the evil and is not certain
whether he will try the
remedyremedy, but is merely speculating on the
future. Might not then such an answer as the following be suitable
to the case?
Ack
ge his despatch. Say that the
Duke of Newcastle's
attention has been attracted by his report of the inevitable delay in
bringing Country lots into the market, that his Grace fully
concursconcurs
with him in the importance of finding means to place Settlers
promptly on their lands, say that it is natural that it should occur
to his mind, in case the surveys cannot be advanced with sufficient
rapidity, to try the expediency of permitting occupation on license.
Remark that he will probably have perceived from the tenor of former
despatches to him, that there is no desire to fetter him by unbending
instructions, but on the contrary a wish to make every allowance for
the difficulties he meets with on the spot and to confide much to
his discretion, that from this general principle
thethe Secretary of
State does not intend now to depart, but that it is only due to him
and the Community over which he presides to communicate to him the
light of past experience. In this point of view, transmit to him an
extract of
Mr Murdoch's report, shewing the serious inconvenience
which has followed in other Settlements from having recourse to the
plan of allowing the occupation of lands upon license. Great as
might be the immediate relief derived from adopting that plan in
B.
Columbia, no reason is apparent for hoping that it would not in the
end be
attendedattended by the same effects which have been experienced
elsewhere. Under these circumstances no effort should be spared for
accelerating surveys sufficiently to provide if possible for the
wants of any incoming population. I should say that
Colonel Moody's
experience will doubtless lead him to place a due value on the most
urgent necessities of the Colony, and that the
Secy of State will
merely remark that the laying out of a reasonable extent of Country
lots in eligible situations appears the most desirable object to
which the strength of the Surveying Staff
cancan in the first instance
be directed. The remark also which is contained in
Mr Murdoch's
report about the relative urgency of Town and Country Surveys may be
deserving of consideration. In conclusion I should say that without
undertaking to prohibit occupation on license, if no other possible
means can be found for supplying a
bonâ fide demand for land, the Secretary of State feels no
doubt that
Governor Douglas will see from the considerations made
known to him in the present despatch that it is of the utmost
importance to endeavour rather
to survey the lands in time to dispose
of really definite and ascertained lots to Purchasers, instead of
running the risk of long future confusion & possibly expensive
litigation about the boundaries of the property proved to be conveyed
by the Crown.