Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Grace's Despatch No 65 of the 26th July last, forwarding for my report copy of a letter from the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company complaining of certain transactions arising out of the Sale by the Agents of the Company of a certainpiece piece of land at Victoria to a Mr Lowenberg.

2. My Despatch No 50 of the 8th August last, will have revealed very fully to Your Grace the recent proceedings of the Agents of the Hudson's Bay Company in respect to lands which had been previously appropriated as Government and Public Reserves, and will have shewn how this Government was compelled, although most reluctantly, by their inconsiderate and really unwarrantable actions, to have recourse to legal measures, not only to prevent part of the Streets, PublicPark, Park, and Church Reserve from being sold, but actually to retain in its entirety the very small spot of land upon which the Government Offices stand. The case of Lowenberg is exclusively connected with this Government land, and it is clearly disclosed by the Documents forwarded in that Despatch; but as it is made the subject of a special and very grave complaint, and as the matter is but very imperfectly represented in the letter of Mr Berens, I will recapitulate the actual facts of the case, mostof of which are incontestably proved by the affidavits filed with the information of the Attorney General, certified copies of which were forwarded with my aforesaid Despatch.

3. A few days before the interference, complained of by Mr Lowenberg, occurred, I had issued instructions to the Surveyor General to run a fence round two of the open sides of the Government Reserve. Upon the evening of the day the work was commenced and after the Surveyor's men had ceased their work, Mr Lowenberg,it appears, it appears, repaired to the spot with a number of men and proceeded to the construction of another fence. Mr Tiedeman an employé of the Land Office warned the men that they were committing a trespass upon the Government property, and were doing that which might lead to a breach of the peace. They desisted, and I am told that thereupon Mr Lowenberg became very violent and assaulted Mr Tiedeman. Mr Tiedeman laid an information against him, and he was taken into custody. This I believe tobe be the whole sum and substance of the proceeding, characterized as an "outrage" upon the part of this Government, by Mr Berens: but which I, probably, with greater accuracy might designate as an attempt upon the part of the Hudson's Bay Company to re-possess themselves of the Government Reserve, Mr Lowenberg being merely their Agent or instrument in the first step taken.

4. Mr Berens does not state that the land purported to have been sold to Mr Lowenberg by Mr Dallas, was a portion of the GovernmentReserve, Reserve; he represents it to have formed part of a farm which had long been under cultivation by the Servants of the Company, and had been cropped by them for a series of years, and that it "adjoined" the Government Reserve from which it was "separated" by a "Ditch or Fence". In 1858 when the Hudsons Bay Company surveyed off into lots and sold the Town Site of Victoria, this Government Reserve, consisting of 10 Acres more or less, was laid out and marked with conspicuous posts upon the ground, some of which remain to this day;and and when the Plan of the Town was made it was duly included therein. A portion of the Reserve might or might not once upon a time have been considered to be included within the limits of the Company's Farm, but if the lines of the Reserve did extend so far back as to encroach upon the lands of the Farm, they were taken so designedly in the first instance by the Company's Agents, to the advantage of the Company, by enabling them to utilize and sell as Town Lots an increased frontage on the water. Certain it is that the cultivation of this portion of the Farm, representedby by Mr Berens to have existed, was not continued after the land was laid out as a Government Reserve. The portion in question was not separated either by a ditch or fence from the land occupied by the Government, for neither exists unless indeed a drain or trench, about two feet wide, to carry off the surface accumulation of water during the winter, can with consistency be termed a ditch. Mr Berens says "a proposal had been made to form a street which passed through the farm and severed this piece from theremainder remainder of the Farm." The "proposed" Street was actually laid out, and lots upon it facing the Government Reserve sold in 1859; the Map upon which the Lots were exhibited and sold by the Company containing the lines of the Government Reserve as originally laid down, the rear line in 1859 forming part of our side of the "proposed" Street. For convenience and for a better comprehension of this point I forward a plan of the locality.

5. I cannot believe that Mr Berens could be aware of all these matters when he penned the letter now under consideration. It wouldseem seem to have been the policy of Mr Dallas, who sold the land, to deprive both the Government and public of the lands originally reserved to them, and to restore the power of the Hudsons Bay Company to deal with the land. The attempt to sell the Public Springs, Public Park, &ca &ca detailed in my Despatch No 50, afford strong evidence of this. Your Grace is well aware of the manner in which my recent application was met for a site for a public wharf and Harbour Masters Office. The Governor of the Hudsons Bay Company theninstantly instantly repudiated any desire on the part of the Company to interfere with the requirements of the Public, and I would fain believe that he will now upon becoming possessed of the real facts of the case as instantly repudiate this attempt to deprive the Government of a piece of ground required for public purposes, and so allotted and marked out in 1858: the more especially as Mr Berens himself recognizes this Reserve in his letter to your Grace of the 16th December 1859, wherein he says The landupon upon which Governor Douglas is now erecting the new Public Offices has also been represented by that Gentleman to be Government property, but I have reason to know that it is part of the land held by the Fur Trade long prior to the Grant from the Crown. 2 The Company therefore will have a claim upon the Government for the value of this land. In 1859 Mr Berens admits this land to be in the possession of the local Government and simply contends that the Company will have "a claim"for for the value of the land. In 1861 Mr Berens represents a portion of this same land to be part of a farm "cultivated" and "cropped" by the Servants of the Company, and only separated from that farm in imagination by a "proposed" Street. I have already shewn that the lines of the Government Reserve were run and marked in 1858, that the Hudsons Bay Company were in possession of a copy of the official plan of the Town upon which those lines are traced, and altho' one of those lines nowforms forms part of the proposed Street (actually laid out in 1859) yet at the time it had no reference to it, and no other significance than the rear line of boundary of the Government reserved land. On the contrary I think the inference may not unfairly be drawn that in laying out the Street alluded to, in 1859, the situation of the Government Reserve did govern the position and direction of such Street and of the Lots surveyed off and sold, otherwise it seems remarkable that Lots should be laid outand and sold upon one side of a street only, and that when fresh lots were required, they should be laid out and sold in the rear of those first disposed of; the less remote meanwhile not only being not sold, but not even surveyed or exhibited for sale: and at last that this piece of land, which had it been at the disposal of the Hudsons Bay Company, could have been advantageously disposed of if put up for sale in Lots at Public Auction, should be parted with to a private Individual, a land Agent by profession, without being surveyed and divided insimilar similar manner to the other side of the Street.

6. The claim for payment of the value of the land which Mr Berens asserts in 1859, would I conceive be perfectly legitimate if the Company had in the first instance paid for the land, for it would merely be an equitable refund in a case where the Company had no power to sell or to purchase; but as the Company have not paid for it, nor for any portion of the 3084 Acres dealt with by them as private property,they they cannot, I apprehend, sustain any claim for repayment or re-imbursement on account of any portion of those 3084 Acres required for Public purposes, for whether the private ownership of those lands be admitted or not, the same principle, I conceive must govern both them and the other lands of the Colony, viz. that all such portions as are required for public purposes must remain in the Crown, and are, consequently, wholly removed from the control of the Company, whatever generalrights rights and privileges may have been accorded by the Crown.