No. 9
[3004, CO 305/17, p. 44; received 4 April
]
7 February 1861
It having been brought to my notice that the Hudson's Bay Company
were about to dispose of at Sale by public auction the whole of the
remaining available water frontage of the business portion of the
City of Victoria, & which water frontage they claimunder under a Title anterior to the Charter of Grant, I considered it my duty to address
a request to the Board of Management to reserve such portions of
water frontage as might be necessary to construct a Government Wharf
and Harbour Masters Office, no such reservation having been
previously made, and the government in consequence being compelled to
pay an exorbitant rent for a small room upon a private wharf for use
as a Harbour Masters Office.
2. From the reply of MrDallas Dallas herewith enclosed Your Grace will
perceive that the Company declined to make any such reservation as
that requested, and I therefore caused a second letter to be
addressed to Mr Dallas recapitulating the grounds upon which the
requisition was made, and explaining its propriety. To this second
letter I have not as yet received any reply, but I fear from the
position assumed by Mr Dallas in his first letter that there is but
little prospect of obtaining what is so obviously required.
3. Your Grace has informedme me that you do not recognize the claim
set up by the Hudsons Bay Company to the land forming the town Site
of Victoria and adjacent thereto, but that the question had been
referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for
settlement, I therefore submit the present case to Your Grace in
order that should the claim of the Company be admitted, the portion
of land required, and as is shewn upon the annexed Tracing, may not
be confirmed to them, for I think it clear, whether the claim be
admitted ornot not, that under all the circumstances of the case it is
wholly inadmissable that the Company should be permitted to
monopolize not only the entire Town Site, and thus deprive the Colony
of the advantages resulting from its Sale, but also every available
part of water frontage, and thus reduce the Government to the level
of a private individual, and oblige it to go into the Market and buy
at an enormous cost what is required for an evident and important
public purpose.
4. A few days ago the Company sold at Auction a portion of the
ground upon which formerly stood their first Establishmentat at
Victoria (its position is marked upon the tracing enclosed). 51 Lots of an average size of 31 feet by 75 feet, were sold for the aggregate
sum of One Hundred and Twenty five Thousand Dollars ($125,000). Some
60 Lots still remain unsold, but I understand the Company propose
selling so soon as the market will yield a similarly good return.
The Company also still hold some 300 Acres around Victoria (part of
their claim of 3084 Acres) which they are disposing of from day to
day at private sale at the rate of One Hundred pounds an Acre.
I
5. I mention these circumstances merely to shew the large pecuniary
benefit reaped by the Company through their tenure of Vancouver's Island, and owing to the accident of the discovery of Gold in British Columbia, and that therefore the Company cannot with any shew of
reason complain that if the very insignificant portion of land now
sought be withheld from them, it would be an act at all approaching
to injustice, or as Mr Dallas would perhaps term it "aggression".
I have the honor to be
My Lord Duke
Your Grace's most obedient Servant
James Douglas