No. 64

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No.
31 of the 25th of April, transmitting copies of two Proclamations which
you have issued for allowing the occupation of Land in Vancouver Island
before survey with a preemptive right.

The regulations therein laid down appear to be substantially the
same as those established for British Columbia by your Proclamation of
4th January 1860, and the omissions in that Proclamation to which I
called your attention in my despatch No. 23 of the 7th of May 1860 have
in a great measure been supplied. But no provision has been made, as
suggested in the report of the Emigration Commissioners transmitted to
you with my despatch, to meet the case of an occupant dying after
considerable expenditure on his land, but without having obtained an
improvement certificate, and without leaving an heir capable of occupying the land in his place. Such cases cannot fail to arise, and
it would be desirable that some arrangement should be made to allow the
heir to dispose of the land so left, even although the expenditure on
it had not been sufficient to enable the occupant to claim the
improvement certificate.

In other respects the regulations appear to me unobjectionable and
I have to convey to you my approval of the Proclamations.