Murdoch to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 14th instant
enclosing an extract of a Despatch from the Governor of
British Columbia on the subject of free grants of Land to
the non commissioned Officers and Men of the Royal Engineers
in the Colony, & remissions in the purchase of Land
to Officers of the Army and Navy generally.

2. The free grants to the non commissioned Officers and
Men of the Engineers on the termination of their service were
promised with a view of obtaining the services of the best Class.
The only question that remains to be considered is the grant
of advantages in the purchase of Land to Officers of the
Army and Navy. Governor Douglas expresses a decided opinion
that such advantages should be granted as a means of
introducing a respectable class of British Subjects and
encouraging sentiments of loyalty and attachment to the Crown.

3. Sir E. Bulwer Lytton is no doubt aware that such
advantages were formerly offered to Military and Naval
Officers in all the British Colonies in which the Crown
possessed waste Lands. They have been since discontinued,
by the decision of the Local Legislatures, in all the North
American Colonies, in Tasmania and South Australia, and in
some of the Provinces of New Zealand. They continue to
exist in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, some
Provinces of New Zealand, Ceylon and the Cape. I am not
aware that they have ever had any extensive influence in any
Colony, but whatever effect they have, would be, as Governor
Douglas observes, to introduce a superior and a very loyal
and attached class of settlers, and that effect could not fail
to be beneficial in any Colony, and especially so in British
Columbia. It appears to one, therefore, that there can be no
objection to introducing the usual regulations on the subject
into British Columbia and I would accordingly recommend that a
copy of those regulations should be forwarded to Governor
Douglas, with authority to promulgate them, unless the
circumstances of British Columbia should appear to him to
require some modification of the provisions.