Walcott to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

I have the honor to acknowledge your Letter of the 27th
instant with an Ordinance passed by the Legislative Council of
British Columbia entitled "An Ordinance for the relief of certain
Naval and Military Settlers."

2. It will be remembered that a Despatch from the Duke of
Newcastle of the 29th of February last called the Governor's
attention to the hardship to which Captain Houghton had been
subjected by an unexpected alteration of the privileges in the
acquisition of land accorded to Naval and Military Officers
settling in British Columbia.

3. By a proclamation of March 1861 Naval and Military Officers
proceeding to the Colony were entitled to the remission of a
certain amount of money in purchasing Crown Lands according to
their rank and length of service. This proclamation was repealed
by a subsequent one No 2 of 1863 called "The Military and Naval
Settlers Act 1863" and a certain amount of land, instead of money,
was promised to Naval and Military Settlers. The Law was altered
because the price of Crown Land in British Columbia had been reduced
from £1 to 4s/2d an acre, and the effect of the alteration
was to give Officers the same number of acres as they would have
received under the first proclamation.

4. As, however, Captain Houghton had sold out of the Army
upon the faith of the first proclamation, and had quitted England
before the arrival and notification of the second, it was not
thought equitable that he should be subjected to the operation of
the second, which would reduce by nearly four fifths the quantity
of land he would have received under the proclamation of 1861.
To meet this and any similar case the present Ordinance has been
passed. It enacts that Officers whether of the Army or Navy who
shall have left Her Majesty's service before the 31st day of
August 1863, and who, but for the Ordinance of February 1863, would
have been entitled to a remission of purchase money, shall be
deemed to be entitled to such remission, provided they make a
statutory declaration that they were not aware at the time of
leaving Her Majesty's service of the alteration created by that
Ordinance, and provided further that they have duly complied with its
requirements.

5. As the present Ordinance was passed in conformity with the
views of the Secretary of State to meet a particular case, I
see no objection why it should not be approved.