Murdoch to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 15th inst,
enclosing Copies of a correspondence with the Hudson's
Bay Company and the Governor of British Columbia, on the
subject of the claims of the Company to Land in that Colony.

2. The Hudson's Bay Company, before the discovery
of Gold in British Columbia, occupied considerable tracts
of Land in the Country which now forms that Colony, for
their Trading Posts and for the support of the Cattle and
Horses necessary for carrying on their Trade. To this
Land they had no formal title, nor was there any definition
of their boundaries. So long as the Country was uninhabited
no inconvenience could be thereby created, but when the Gold
discoveries attracted large numbers of Settlers it became
important that their claims should be ascertained and placed
on a more precise and satisfactory footing. The Company
accordingly brought the matter under Sir E.B. Lytton's
consideration and requested that the Governor might be
directed to define their Land, taking a liberal view of
their claims with reference to the Land occupied and
pastured by their Cattle before the influx of Miners.
Sir E.B. Lytton in consequence directed Governor Douglas
to enquire into the Company's claims. He added that H.M. Government
were desirous of taking a liberal view of those
claims, consistently with public interests, but that a
considerable distinction must be drawn between Land on
which Capital had been expended, and that which had been
only temporarily occupied.

3. Governor Douglas' Despatch of 31st May last
contains the Report thus called for. It appears that the
Land claimed by the Company amounts in all to upwards of
98,000 Acres, that of this 10 Acres is in the Town of Old
Fort Langley, 6,400 Acres or 10 Square Miles in its
immediate vicinity, and 640 Acres at the Town of Fort
Hope. A Table is annexed to the Despatch from which
(if I understand it rightly) it is intended to be
inferred, that the whole of the Land has involved
outlay that blocks containing upwards of 80,000 Acres
have been brought into partial cultivation and are
necessary for the maintenance of existing Stock, and
that none has served only for occasional pasture.
The Company claim in addition the whole of the cleared
land at Old Langley, including what has been sold
under protest from their Agent to Settlers and a compensation
of 5000 dollars for making Roads and for Land between
Fort Hope and Thompsons River not occupied but improved
by the sowing of Grass Seed.

4. Governor Douglas wages strongly the claim of the
Hudsons Bay Company to liberal consideration on the
ground of their services in securing the Country
West of the Rocky Mountains for Great Britain, and the
loss they have incurred by the premature revocation
of their Trading License. He also lays stress on the
alleged recognition of the Company's rights in the
Oregon Treaty of 1846. But that Treaty only promises
that the "Possessory rights of the Hudsons Bay Co
and of all British Subjects who may be already in the
occupation of Land or other property lawfully acquired
shall be respected." He adds that the Lands claimed
by the Company have no connexion with the Gold Fields,
are not known to be auriferous are not except the Posts
on the Lower part of Frazers River of any extraordinary
value for purposes of settlement, and are so remote
from the Sea that years will probably elapse before
they can be settled. Colonel Moody, whom the Governor
consulted, agreed with him on the general principle,
but recommended that the claim at Fort Langley & Fort Hope should be admitted to a limited extent only &
compensation be provided by the Grant of Land
elsewhere. At Fort Hope he observed, the claim, if
rigidly followed out, would embrace Town Lots in
respect of which the Crown is already pledged to others.

5. The nature & extent of the political claims of
the Hudson's Bay Company on the Crown can be best
appreciated by the Secretary of State. We have no
means at this Office (even if it were within our
province to do so) of forming an opinion upon them.
But there can be no disposition on the part of H.M.
Government to deal with the Company in an illiberal
Spirit. The real question is how far their claims
can be admitted without injustice to other residents
in the Colony, and without the risk of obstructing
its future settlement.

6. Upon this point it is extremely difficult
to form any conclusion from Governor Douglas' Despatch.
Sir E.B. Lytton had indicated the principle which
should guide the decision, by stating that he was
prepared to draw a considerable distinction between
land which had been cultivated or had involved outlay
or was necessary for existing Stock, and that which had
served only for occasional pasturage. But Governor
Douglas has placed the whole of the Company's claim in
the former category, although it is very difficult to
believe that 98,000 Acres spread in blocks varying
from a few Acres to 100 Square Miles over several
hundred Miles of Country should all be properly entitled
to be so considered. The explanation may possibly be,
that a great portion of the Land has Cattle upon it
belonging to the Company, and may, therefore, be considered
as falling within the description of being necessary
"to the maintenance of their existing Stock or Establishment."
The result, however, is that some more specific principle
must be adopted for determining the extent to which the
claims of the Company should be recognized by H.M. Government.

7. Colonel Moody has observed, with reference to
their claims at Fort Langley and Fort Hope, that their
admission to the full extent would provoke very hostile
criticism and protests on the part of the public, and
might eventually lead to the Company obtaining less than
justice. Considering that the claim at Fort Langley,
as has been stated, is, in its full extent, for the whole
of the Town, and even in its reduced form, for 10 acres or
60 lots in the Town, and for 6,400 Acres in its immediate
vicinity and that such lots were sold last year at upwards
of £42 a Lot, it is impossible to question the correctness
of this opinion. To recognize this claim, even in its less
extended form, would place the future progress of Fort
Langley in the hands of the Hudsons Bay Company, and the same
result would follow if the claim of the Company to 640 Acres
at Fort Hope were admitted. Indeed as the Posts of the
Company were naturally placed at the most convenient spots
for communication between the interior and the Fort, and
as such spots would, in the ordinary course of events, become
the most probable centres of population, the grant to
the Company of the Land claimed as having been occupied by
them would make them to a great extent Masters of the future
progress of the Colony, that it would provoke discontent and
complaint among the immigrant population can hardly admit of doubt.

8. But while it seems quite clear that the claims of the
Company must be very much reduced from their present amount
before they can be entertained, it is almost impossible to
determine, except on the spot, what ought to be rejected.
As a general rule I would submit, that claims to Land in
Towns or in spots likely to become the sites of Towns should
be admitted with great reserve, and only on proof of a
substantial expenditure of capital upon them, either in the
preparation of the Land or in the actual erection
*
of buildings, that tracts of Country Land, not auriferous,
which have been actually brought under cultivation should
be granted to the Company with such a reasonable extension
of area as may be necessary to turn the Land to good account,
but in respect to the large tracts occupied by the Companys
Stock, that they should receive only a License of occupation
at a small yearly rent, subject, however, to be terminated
at the end of each year if the Land should be required for
Sale or Settlement. If these principles should be approved
the application of them must still be left to the Governor
on the spot, but with the means of information at his
command he could have no great difficulty in carrying
them into effect. It may, however, save time if when the
principles to be observed have been decided on a communication
were made to the Company in this Country before final
instructions are sent to Governor Douglas.

Under any circumstances Governor Douglas should, I think,
be instructed to furnish hereafter a full report of the steps
which he may take in the matter with an explanation of the
nature of the claim of the Company to the several tracts of
Land which he may propose to concede to them, and that his
report should be accompanied, if possible, by a Chart showing
the position of the Land claimed and of that conceded.