Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

We have to acknowledge your letter of the 11th inst, accompanied by
one from the Foreign Office, desiring us to report our opinion
whether any and what measures could be adopted for promoting British
Emigration to Vancouvers Island. We presume that the object in view
is the introduction into Vancouvers Island and the neighbouring
Island of a population firmly attached to the British Crown, who
might serve as a counterpoise to the influx of American Citizens into
that part of the British Territory.

2. In considering this question the most obvious difficulty is, in
the case of the laboring population, the length of the passage round
Cape Horn, and the expense of that across the Isthmus of Panama. The
latter difficulty could of course be overcome by a grant of
assistance from public funds, if political objects rendered such a
course expedient. The expense of a passage round Cape Horn would
probably be about £25 per Statute Adult, and across the Isthmus of
Panama about £45. These prices might be somewhat reduced if a
considerable body of persons were sent together.

3. As there are no Colonial Funds applicable to such a service they
could be provided only by a Parliamentary grant or by a Commercial
Company. In the latter case privileges in the acquisition of Land
must, we presume, be conceded as the price of the advance. But
unless such privileges are very strictly limited
and full provision is made for their forfeiture in case of failures,
they are apt to become an obstacle, instead of an assistance, to
settlement, and give rise to complaint and discontent among the
Settlers. On the other hand if the conditions are made stringent,
and it is felt that the Government will construe them strictly, it
becomes difficult to induce Capitalists to undertake an enterprize
which must necessarily be of a hazardous and speculative nature.

4. For keeping in view the object to be attained it must be the
condition of any scheme whether undertaken by the Government or by a
Company that within a certain time a certain number of well affected
and respectable Settlers should be located in the Island. But
looking to the decrease of the General Emigration from the United
Kingdom during the last few years, and to the superior attractions
offered by other British Colonies and by the United States, it may be
doubted whether the only class who would be really useful as Settlers
would be disposed to Emigrate to Vancouvers Island under an
obligation to remain there. It is clear that the Settlers to be sent
ought to be married men of steady habits but to such men the present
aspect of affairs at San Juan and the possibility of a collision with
the Americans would be a great discouragement.

5. Assuming, however, that eligible Settlers could be found the next
question is whether the object to be attained would be worth the
expense. We take it for granted that it would not be attempted to
send men of the laboring class across the Isthmus of Panama. But
the cost of a passage round Cape Horn, which would occupy between 4 &
5 months, we have stated at £25 per Statute Adult and it may be
reckoned that each adult man would on an average be accompanied by
women and Children to the extent of 2 adults more. In other words
each adult man would cost £75 before he arrived in the Colony. To
place, therefore, 1000 Adult men, equal to a population of (say) 4000
Souls, in Vancouvers Island would cost £75,000. Means must also be
found for employing them when there until they could raise food for
themselves. We do not presume to say whether Parliament would grant
such amounts for such a service—but we do not see how any Commercial
Company could by [any] possibility recover such advances through
any privileges in the disposal of Land which the Crown would be
justified in conferring upon them.

6. Moreover considerable as the expense would be the number of
Settlers thus procured would be altogether insignificant in
comparison with the numbers which might be poured in from California
and the adjoining American Territory. And it seems to us hopeless to
expect that any efforts which this Country can make at the distance
of more than half the globe to fill up the Territory with British
born subjects could counter balance the advantages which Americans
possess from their immediate vicinity to it. If the Country holds
out good prospects to Settlers Americans will flow in in numbers
which it is vain to hope to equal. If it does not British subjects
will not stay, even if the British Government felt justified in
sending them there.

7. Another difficulty to which we have not referred, but which will
materially influence the result, is the attraction of the Gold Fields
of British Columbia. Up to the present time the production of Gold
in British Columbia appears to be more than sufficient to provide an
ample remuneration for all employed in gold seeking, irrespective of
the great prizes which from time to time are found. So long as that
is the case there will be a natural gravitation of the Laboring
population to the Gold Fields which it would be extremely difficult
to counteract by conditions of Settlement. Indeed experience in
Australia has shown that such conditions cannot be practically
enforced there, and if they could be enforced in Vancouvers Island
the only result would be to make the Settlers discontented and
resentful, & so to defeat the object with which they were sent out.
A large allowance must, therefore, be made in calculating the expense
of promoting the Settlement of Vancouvers Island for the desertion of
a portion of the Settlers to British Columbia.

8. Upon the whole we regret to be obliged to state that we can
suggest no scheme for promoting settlement in Vancouvers Island which
appears to us feasible. We cannot see how such a scheme could be
carried out without a large expenditure which could be drawn only
from the public funds, and even after such an expenditure we see so
many causes of failure that we cannot think the experiment would be
worth the cost.