No. 26
12 May 1868
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 149 of the 22nd November enclosing a Copy of an Ordinance "for regulating the Acquisition of Crown Lands in British Columbia."
I should be glad to receive Returns from theproperManuscript image proper Officer, and a Report from you shewing clearly the working of the present system of land sale, and I also desire to know to what extent settlers have taken advantage of the preemption system, to what extent their lands have been surveyed and granted, to what extent the conditions of settlement, by way of personal residence and improvement have been actually enforced, and whether any difficulty has been found in obtaining payment for the land occupiedandManuscript image and in defining its boundaries.
Although the practice of allowing every Immigrant to take what land he likes and where he likes is doubtless that which will impose least trouble on the Government Officers for the time being and will have an appearance of satisfying Immigrants, such a system is obviously calculated to furnish occasion for future disputes as settlement advances, and has been in fact found to do so in other Colonies. There are therefore strong reasons, ifitManuscript image it is possible, for providing that surveys should precede instead of following settlement.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble Servant
Buckingham & Chandos
People in this document

Grenville, Richard

Seymour, Governor Frederick

Places in this document

British Columbia

Grenville, Richard to Seymour, Governor Frederick 12 May 1868, NAC :, 94. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. James Hendrickson and the Colonial Despatches project. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/B687026.html.

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