Murdoch to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 2nd Instant
enclosing a Despatch from Governor Douglas on the present
state of British Columbia, and expressing the desire of
the Duke of Newcastle to be furnished with any observations
which occur to us upon it.

2. Governor Douglas commences by an epitome of a
Report recently furnished to him by Mr Sanders the
Assistant Gold Commissioner, the substance of which
could not be stated more succinctly than in their Despatch.
The effect of it is to show that the land along the whole
course of Frazers River is highly auriferous, that
probably a large part of the interior of the Colony is
equally so, and that even the lands that have been worked
are so far from exhausted that additional skill and
labour would again render them very productive and
profitable. Governor Douglas further reports that
detachments of Sappers and Marines are actively employed
in opening Roads, that the traffic on the roads that
have been opened is very great, and that the expense of
transport has been reduced from 37 Cents per lb
last winter to 10 cents per lb at present. He adds
that while on Frazers River there are large Tracts of
land adapted for settlement, on Harrison's River, which
is less fertile, there are forests of magnificent trees
and great water power, so that each will contribute
though in a different way, to the wealth of the Country.
From Harrisons River he anticipates a large export of
Spars and deal. A powerful water Saw Mill has been
already erected near the Town of Douglas by a Mr
McDonald. These accounts must be considered as highly satisfactory.

3. But Governor Douglas likewise states that in
consequence of the delay caused by the survey of
the site of 'Queensboro' (now called New Westminster)
and other necessary work, no Country Land has as yet
been brought into the Market, and that there is much
popular clamour on that account. To meet this difficulty
he proposes to establish some system of occupation which
would enable settlers to occupy and improve certain
tracts of land under preemptive rights until the Surveys
are completed. To this point our special attention is
directed by your letter.

4. It appears to me that nothing but the clearest
necessity should induce the Government to have recourse
to such an arrangement. It may perhaps be unobjectionable
in the case of isolated adventurers in tracts of Country
far removed from actual settlement, and where no other
rights have grown up or are likely to be immediately created.
But in a Country like British Columbia and as a means of meeting
the demands of a large body of settlers it could not fail
to introduce great confusion and uncertainty of title, and
to lay the ground for future disputes and litigation. From
the nature of the case there would be no definition of the
boundaries of individual settlers, and it is impossible to
believe that under such circumstances rival claims to the same
land would not continually spring up. And in a Country where
superficial improvements are so easily made and as easily
obliterated, the decision of such claims would involve very
great difficulty; not only to the Executive Government, who
would first be called upon to decide them, but even to Courts
of Law. The History of every new Colony shows the embarrassment
and loss which has arisen from a careless or indiscreet system
of disposing of the Crown Lands in the first instance.

*

The land moreover would be occupied and claimed in every kind of shape
most convenient to the individual settler, and it would be
very difficult, if not impossible to fit these claims into a
future survey without leaving portions of unappropriated
land, the value of which would be destroyed by the shape and
position of the adjoining claims and which would thus become
not only valueless but injurious. This was the case in Ceylon
and Natal where land was granted with great laxity and without
reference to any General survey, and the records of the Colonial
Office contain ample proof of the confusion and expense which
has been caused in Ceylon. It appears to me that it would be
far better to delay the completion of the survey of the Capital,
and to draw from the Survey party there employed sufficient
strength to lay out the Country Lands that may be immediately
required. It seems hardly probable that the demand for land in
New Westminster can be so great as to require that the survey of
its site should be immediately completed, and at all events it
would seem easier to provide for a demand for unsurveyed land in
the Town, where the lots are only 1/6 of an acre in size, than for
Country Lands where the demands would be for many hundred acres
at a time.

5. Upon the whole I would recommend that no countenance
should be given to Governor Douglas' proposal to sanction
the occupation with preemptive rights of unsurveyed land.