No. 27, Legislative

I have the honour to forward herewith the four
undermentioned Acts, together with the Attorney Generals
report thereon

No 1 Roads Bonds Act 1863.

No 2 The Military and Naval Settlers Act 1863.

No 3 The Roads Tolls Extention Act 1863.

No 4 Gold Fields Act 1863 and further Rules and
Regulations issued in conformity with the Gold Fields Act 1859.

1. The Road Bonds Act is so fully reported on by the
Attorney General that further comment is unnecessary except
to remark that pending the question of a further loan, I
had no alternative than thus to make provision for meeting
our liabilities on account of Roads. The sanction of that
further loan now renders the Act unnecessary, and provision
will be made in the Loan Act for cancelling the principal
liability incurred under the Bonds Act.

2. The Military and Naval Settlers Act 1863 repeals the
Act under the same title of 1861. Since the reduction in the
price of Country land in British Columbia to four shillings and
two pence (4s/2d) an acre, the areas
represented by the remission in the purchase money of land
to Officers of the Army and Navy greatly exceed the acreage
which it was intended to convey.

It was moreover found by two years experience that the Colony had not gained the
advantages anticipated from the Act by the advent of a
respectable class of settlers; while the tracts of land
occupied by the few retired Officers of Her Majesty's Army
who have taken up their abode in the Colony, have created much
dissatisfaction among other classes of Her Majesty's subjects.
These lands being with few exceptions, untilled and unimproved,
are a hindrance to settlement and give the impression that
they are merely held for profitable resale.

It was therefore
deemed expedient to pass the present Act which practically
offers free grants of country land closely representing the
money value of the remissions in the former Act estimated at the rate
of one pound per acre. This is the general object of the Act.

3. The Roads Tolls Extension Act is simply a Revenue
measure imposing an additional tax of say one farthing sterling
per lb upon all goods leaving Hope, Yale and Douglas for parts
beyond. This measure was adopted with the consent of a
majority of the inhabitants as a further means of raising
funds for the construction and improvement of roads and is
now in profitable operation.

4. The Gold Fields Act with Rules & Regulations 1863 contain several useful provisions for the better working of the Gold Fields. The Free Miners rights are more clearly defined, and
the Act especially secures for that class the free use of any
water flowing naturally through or past any mining claim and
guards against the diversion of the same, by exclusive grants
which are made applicable only to surplus water not required
by working Miners, in all places where such privileges may
be granted. The Act also imposes a fee of ten shillings and
three pence (10s/3d) on the registration of claims, instead of the fee of 4s/- before levied as a means of Revenue.

It was also thought expedient to extend the size of the
claims to 100 feet square for all alluvial diggings and to
define the extent and method of working tunnel claims; a
matter of extreme interest to the Carribou Miners whose
practical knowledge and suggestions I found of great assistance
in arranging those apparently simple, but really very difficult
points. The other provisions in this Act are fully explained
in the Attorney Generals report.