Colonial Despatches

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 theproper 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 occupiedand 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, ifit it is possible, for providing that surveys should precede instead of following settlement.