No. 60

I have had under my consideration your Despatch, No. 61, of the
19th July, on the subject of the operation of the Vancouver Island Land
Proclamation of 1862.

I agree with you that the terms of this Proclamation, which appears
never to have been submitted to this Office, are such as to impose
obstacles upon the advancement of the Colony. I have therefore to
authorize you to prepare a fresh Land Proclamation embodying in it what
you may consider to be the appropriate remedies for the evils you have
pointed out, in order that, before coming to a final decision, I may
have the advantage to be derived from local experience.

As it is probably unadvisable for both Colonies that there should
be too striking a dissimilarity between the Land systems of Vancouver
Island and British Columbia, I transmit to you a Copy of the British
Columbia Land Ordinance, No. 27 of 1865, which has received the Royal
Assent. You will observe that this Ordinance embodies the principle of
pre-emption, but modifies its operation, by requiring the previous
License of the Stipendiary Magistrate of the District before an
Applicant can take possession of, and record his claim to any land, and
by providing that the pre-emptor's right to acquire additional contiguous
land, by an immediate payment of half the purchase money, shall be
limited to a right to acquire 480 Acres, except with the express
sanction in writing of the Governor. By this means no one can obtain on
credit more than one square mile of land, and for three fourths of this,
he must pay down half of the purchase money.

Steps should be taken to enforce firmly the resumption of all land
forfeited by the non-performance of the conditions of the proclamation
of 1862, and you must impress on the Surveying Department the necessity
of requiring satisfactory evidence of permanent improvements to the full
value required by the 19th Section of the Proclamation before granting
the prescribed "Certificate of Improvement."

You have already been made aware by my Despatch of the 12th
Instant, that the expenses of managing the Crown Lands form in my
opinion a legitimate charge on the Crown Revenue.