Colonial Despatches

The scale of New Caledonia has changed over time. In 1806, Simon Fraser used the name to denote the central and high plateau region of present-day British Columbia, in reference to Scotland—though Fraser had never been there.1 Names for the same region included Oregon, thanks to the Americans, New Hanover, a holdover from Captain Vancouver, and even North West Georgia, so called by the North West Company; when the North West Company merged with the HBC in 1821, the former carried the New Caledonia name with it.2

Once the British established a crown colony in the region in 1858, Colonial Secretary Bulwer-Lytton proposed the name New Caledonia, but the French had a South Pacific colony of the same name, so Queen Victoria's choice of British Columbia won out officially on August 2, 1858.3

• 1. Barry M. Gough, New Caledonia, The Canadian Encyclopedia.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.