Murdoch to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 13th instant, with a
Despatch from the Governor of British Columbia on the subject of a
Survey of the land conceded to the Hudson's Bay Company in that Colony.

2. By an Agreement made in October 1861 it was arranged, that
the Hudsons Bay Company should receive, in satisfaction of indefinite
claims which they alleged themselves to have to land in British
Columbia, certain plots containing in all 2913 Acres, being
principally the Sites and immediate environs of their former trading
Posts. The Company complain that the Government of British Columbia
have incurred unnecessary delay in conveying to them these lands.
Governor Seymour answers that by the existing Law no grant can be
issued until the Government Survey extends to this Land claimed,
which is the case with only a portion of the Hudsons Bay Cos
Lands. As, however, many years will probably elapse before the
Government Survey is extended over the whole Colony, the Governor
proposes to make some alteration in the Law at the next Session. It
remains to be seen how far any such alteration will meet the
inconvenience of which the Hudsons Bay Company complain, but as
their blocks of Land are 24 in number, extended over a large portion
of the Colony, and varying in size from one Acre to 600, and as
many of them are not, as Mr Seymour observes, worth the
expense of a separate Survey, it is scarcely probable that grants
can be issued for the whole at an early date. The Governor expresses
a desire to meet the wishes of the Company, and there seems no
reason to doubt that he will do so as far as he can consistently
with justice to other Settlers.