No. 44

1. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your Despatch of
the 16th of August 1858, No. 10, transmitting to me copy of a
letter to Lord Derby, with a Petition to the Crown, from a
gentleman named Nias, residing at San Francisco, California.

2. As you have thought it proper to submit this letter and
Petition for my report, on account of the great importance of
the 
subject, I have to offer the following remarks in respect to
the Petition.

3. Mr Nias says that

James Douglas Esqre has sold large numbers of Town lots in said
City of Victoria, and large tracts of suburban lands in vicinity
of said City to Capitalists and Speculators without annexing
conditions to said sale, requiring such Town lots and Suburban
tracts to be improved with substantial improvements within a
reasonable time. That said lots had been sold 50 and 60 to one
person, at the Government price £5 and £10 per lot; and in
reality worth from £50 to £1000 and upwards in some instances;
and are now held at from 20 to 200 times the first cost.

4. The allegation contained in this part of Mr Nias' Petition
has, I presume, application to my public acts as Governor of
Vancouver's Island for the Crown, and Agent of the Hudson's Bay
Company, my signature in the latter capacity being attached to
all Town lot Deeds, and has, I suppose, no application to any of
my acts as a private individual, otherwise it is utterly and
totally untrue, as neither directly nor indirectly has one acre
of land been sold for me, or in my behalf on Vancouver's Island.

5. All public land in Vancouver's Island is sold by the
Colonial Surveyor in the public offices of the Colony at the
fixed Government price of 
20 shillings an acre, and no change
has, up to this day, been made; neither has the Governor any
authority to alter that standard price.

6. In no instance have Town or Suburban lots been sold by the
Colonial Government, for the reason that the colonization law of
Vancouver's Island, provides that no grant of land shall contain
less than 20 acres.

7. Tracts of different sizes have been offered for sale by
individual proprietors of land in this Colony; and the Hudson's
Bay Company to meet the public demand have sold a few suburban
and a great number of Town lots near Fort Victoria, where they
hold about 1200 acres of land 
belonging to their Fur Trade
concern. The Hudson's Bay Company have always sold suburban
lots, consisting of 5 acres of land, at the rate of £25 for each
lot; and Town lots measuring 120 X 60 feet, at first sold for
£10.8.4, have now risen to £20.16.8 a lot.

8. The Petition states that such Town lots and suburban tracts
have been sold at the Government price £5 and £10 per lot, and
are now held at from 20 to 200 times "the first cost," a
statement that is evidently incorrect as respects the actual
sale price; and is equally so as respects their present value,
the Government land being still sold at 20 shillings an acre and
thousands of acres being in the market for sale without a
purchaser and any number of Town lots may 
now be bought at the
original price of £20.16.8. There was a time last summer when
private sales of small parcels of land in good situations were
made at the rate of £100 an acre, but that unhealthy inflation
was temporary and met with no countenance from Government, and
that price could never as a rule be quoted as the value of land
in Vancouver's Island.

9. We have always endeavoured to check the operations of
capitalists who purchase land merely for re-sale at a profit,
though it is not clear to my mind that, if practicable, it would
in all cases be desirable to prevent such operations. Without
however entering into that question at present, I will remark
that 
Vancouver's Island has enjoyed a remarkable freedom from
the speculations of Capitalists. The only large tract of land,
about 6000 acres, sold in one lot, was purchased by the Hudson's
Bay Company for their coal works at Nanaimo. In some few other
instances the lots have rather exceeded 500 acres, but generally
speaking, lots have been of moderate size, and purchased solely
with the view of actual settlement.

10. The following synopsis of sales of Town lots and
agricultural land effected since the commencement of this
present year made up from a return received from the Colonial
Surveyor will further show that Her Majesty's Colony of
Vancouver's Island has not fallen 
into the hands of Mr Nias'
dreaded American "Land Grabber," and also the incorrectness of
the assertion, in the Petition, that as many as 50 and 60 lots
have been sold to one person.

The total number of Town lots sold is 1142, equal to an area of
190 1/3 acres, excluding, of course, the spaces retained for
streets.

These 1142 lots were purchased by 434 individuals, which will
give but 2 5/9 lots or 70 17/100 perches, or about 2112 square
yards of land to each purchaser.

These facts alone would suffice to answer Mr Nias' assertion,
but to place the subdivision in a clearer light, it may be
stated that as many as 203 of the lots were sold 
singly to 209
different purchasers, a few of such single lots having been
purchased by more than one person on joint account.

Another illustration of the very general subdivision of property
is afforded by the fact that for the limited number of 8 of the
lots there were as many as 17 purchasers.

On the other hand, some single individuals did purchase more
than one lot and probably for good reasons. Practically a Town
could not have been established had every individual purchaser
been limited to the acquisiton of one lot of 60 X 120 feet, for
so small a quantity of land would not have sufficed for many of
the 
domestic and business purposes for which the purchases were
made.

Besides, such a limitation would have banished Capital entirely
from investment in Town land.

Agricultural lands, sold at £1 per acre

Saanich Disct 47 Purchasers of 38 sectns formg together
11,210 acres

Cowitchin do 34 " 27 " " 14,620 "

Lake do 2 " 2 " " 450 "

Sooke do 8 " 8 " " 2,040 "

Victoria &c do 35 " 35 " " 1,894 "

___ ___ _____
Total 126 " 110 " " 30214 "

which gives a result of nearly 239 acres, certainly a very
moderate quantity to each purchaser.

11. The Petition however, respects a subject of great
importance. I will therefore take the liberty of making some
remarks on the system recommended by Mr Nias for effecting
sales of land. There is in my opinion no 
objection to the
system which has always been a favorite theory of my own. The
only question is whether that system could be enforced in all
cases with advantage to a country in the condition of
Vancouver's Island.

12. On the rush of emigration to this Colony last summer, I
greatly feared that the operations of land speculators might
prove detrimental to the rising interests of Victoria, and as
mere speculative purchases of land are repugnant to the whole
system of colonization established in Vancouver's Island, I was
prompted by my own views on the subject to make it a rule, as a
condition necessary to perfect title, 
that "substantial
improvement" should be made within a reasonable time on all Town
lots held in the Town of Victoria; but I was restrained from
taking that step, by considerations as to the probable influence
of such a measure in checking the progress of legitimate
settlement, and I will here submit a few of those reasons for
your information.

13. After striving for many years without much success to
attract a population to this Colony, it struck me on reflection
that it would be absurd to place a check on emigration, by
imposing onerous conditions on purchasers of land, the very
instant that people began to come into the Country; with
thousands of square miles 
of uninhabited wilderness containing
as good land as any in the District of Victoria, and equal in
all other natural advantages, it seemed an excess of caution to
guard the District of Victoria with such jealous vigilance. It
also occurred to me that the value of land like that of other
property is regulated by the law of supply and demand, and that
with so much waste land as there is in this Colony, a high
speculative price could never be long maintained. And also,
that every person investing Capital in the purchase of landed
property, becomes interested in the prosperity of that Country,
where his Capital is invested, and is naturally led 
from motives
of self interest, to seek its advancement and also that the
phrase "substantial improvement" is a vague term, which may be
evaded in many ways, a fence or a log hut may, for instance, be
legally defined as "substantial improvements," it being in short
exceedingly difficult to enforce the observance of any
regulation, militating so directly as that would, with public
opinion and convenience; neither would its enforcement be in all
cases judicious—a laboring man, for example, is desirous of
investing his savings in the purchase of a Town lot, but he is
told no, you cannot have a Town lot unless you have enough money 
to build a house also, and not being possessed of sufficient
funds, he goes his way disappointed, and the Town loses probably
an honest and industrious inhabitant, who under a lenient system
might have become a useful member of society. The scarcity and
exorbitant price of building materials and labor might, as
happened, at one time here last summer, absolutely put it out
of the power of a poor settler, to undertake immediate
improvements.

14. Arguments in short appeared to multiply in favor of the
unfettered sale of land, and I in consequence gave up the idea
of imposing any restrictions, presuming, moreover; that every
one 
would consult his own interest, and do what was best for the
improvement of his property. To take any other steps appeared
very like killing the Country by over legislation.

15. I would here also remark that there is a remedy against
speculative purchases of Town or other land, which may be
applied whenever such purchases interfere with the progress of a
country, or the convenience of the inhabitants, which is to
impose a tax on all unimproved land.

16. The evils that have arisen in Oregon, from the conditions
attached to the pre-emption law, are very great, having caused a
vast amount of perjury and unsettled Titles. 
To explain this, a
person is required there to take oath, that he intends to reside
upon and improve his claim, or in other words, to make it his
home. He receives on those terms 160 acres of land, and
forthwith sells it, making his sons perhaps perjure themselves
in the same manner. I have been told that in consequence of
that law, there is scarcely a good title in Oregon, as few
persons have complied with the conditions of residence and
improvement; questions of title are therefore constantly coming
before the Courts of the Country, and the utmost uncertainty and
confusion prevails.

17. Having hurriedly thrown together these remarks on the
subject of land sales, I may further state, that the rapid
growth of the Town of Victoria has been remarkable, and if the
number of houses can be considered as such, I do not think any
system could be attended with a greater amount of substantial
improvement, than the system we have hitherto followed.

18. I have in conclusion to remark that Her Majesty's
Government may rest assured that I will not fail to protect the
public interests, and to prevent as far as lies within 
my power,
any wasteful or partial dealings with the public land of this
Colony or British Columbia.