No. 27

I have the honour to inform Your Grace that I have lately
issued the Proclamations mentioned in the accompanying Schedule;
and I herewith transmit Copies of the same for the information of Her Majesty's Government.

2. The "Southern Boundary Act", authorizing, on certain
terms, the importation of goods overland into British Columbia,
pending the completion of the communications, is a measure which
the increasing population of that district of the Colony, whose
wants were inadequately supplied by the Frasers River route, has
rendered indispensable. That difficulty will not be felt to the
same extent when the road from Hope to Rock Creek is completed according to the plans, now in rapid progress; and will probably
altogether cease as the advance of cultivation and settlement
places the country in a more independent position with respect
of foreign supplies of food. This concession has been necessarily
qualified by the imposition of a fine of 3 per cent in addition
to the duties collected at New Westminster, not as a differential duty, which might have led to international questions with the
United States, but to defray the great expense of collecting
the duties on the frontier, and not, as the Law requires, at
the regular port of entry.

3. The "Country Land Act 1861" reduces the price of all
unsurveyed country land, whether acquired by occupation or
purchase, under the Proclamation of 1860, and the minimum
upset price of all unsurveyed country land exposed for sale
at public auction, to 4s/2d per acre, in accordance with the
authority conveyed in Despatch No 41, of the 16th July 1860.

4. The "Pre-emption Amendment Act 1861" has been issued in
consequence of Her Majesty's Sanction of the Preemption Act of
1860, conveyed in Your Grace's despatch No 64 of the 6th of
December 1860, and embodies the amendments in the Act of 1860,
suggested in Your Grace's Despatch of the 7th of May 1860,
with some further provisions in respect to the form of land
acquired under the Preemption Act of 1860. This highly important
measure has been weighed with careful attention, and I feel
assured that Her Majesty's Government will never have cause to
regret the initiation of a wise and liberal policy which will,
if anything can accomplish that object, ensure the occupation
and settlement of the vast domains of the Crown in British Columbia.

5. The other Act, passed in consequence of instructions in
Despatch No 34 of the 19th March 1859, provides for remissions in the purchase of lands in British Columbia, to Officers of the Royal Army * and Navy, on the same conditions as in Her Majesty's
other Colonies where those advantages have not been discontinued;
and contains only the usual provisions.

6. I will forward the Attorney General's remarks on those Acts
as soon as they come to hand. Trusting that they may meet with the
approval of Her Majesty's Government.