Walcott to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your Letter of the 18th instant,
with a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of British Columbia
enclosing an Ordinance No 27 entitled

An Ordinance for regulating the acquisition of Land in British Columbia.

2. This Ordinance is accompanied by a Report from Mr
Crease the Attorney General which contains so clear and concise
a summary of the Ordinance and the changes introduced by it in the
previous Law, that it would be superfluous to reproduce them in
detail. It may be sufficient to observe generally that a
difference is made in the mode of dealing with surveyed and
unsurveyed Country Lands. The former can only be acquired by
purchase at auction or, if not sold at auction, by private contract
at the upset price fixed in the Ordinance namely 4s/2d an
acre. The latter may be acquired by what is termed pre-emption.
Under this system any person may take possession of any
unsurveyed, unoccupied and unreserved Country Land not exceeding
160 acres, and not being the site or proposed site of a Town,
or auriferous land or an Indian reserve, provided he first
obtains a Licence for the purpose from the Magistrate of the
District. Within 7 days afterwards, and on payment of a fee of
8s/4d, the Magistrate records the claim, and grants a
"record certificate" which is a bar to all previous claims
to the same land. When the Government Survey extends to
the land thus "pre-empted" the claimant, his heirs, or
devisees or (if he shall have obtained from the Stipendiary
Magistrate of the District a certificate that he has made
permanent improvements thereon to the value of 10s/ an
acre) his assigns, becomes entitled, if there has been a
continuous occupation of the land, to purchase it at
4s/2d per acre. A preemptor may also preempt an
additional tract, not exceeding 480 acres, of contiguous
land upon payment of 2s/1d an acre leaving the
remaining 2s/1d to be paid when the land is surveyed.
Provision is made for the case of disputed claims, and the
right to preempt is confined to British Subjects and to
those Aliens who may have taken the Oath of Allegiance.
Aliens who have not taken that Oath can purchase but
cannot preempt lands.

3. The new Ordinance is in the main substantially
the same as the former Law—"the preemption consolidation
Act 1861," which it repeals. But new provisions are
introduced for regulating the mode in which the right to
appropriate water for irrigation and other purposes is
acquired, and for enabling the Governor in his discretion
to grant pastoral Leases to bonâ fide pre-emptors or
purchasers, and to issue Timber cutting Licences. The
Ordinance fixes no limit to the term of the pastoral
leases that may be granted, but it makes them subject,
without compensation, to the right of reserve and of
preemption and purchase by any person during the term,
and to the condition of being properly stocked within
6 months as the Stipendiary Magistrate may direct.

4. As the granting of Pastoral Leases is entirely
in the discretion of the Governor, Mr Cardwell may
think it advisable to instruct him not to grant them for a
period exceeding 7 years, and to be careful not to
insert in them any right of renewal.

5. The 55th section of the Ordinance is also
new. It authorizes the Governor on receiving and
publishing the assent of Her Majesty's Government thereto
to make free or partially free grants of land for the
encouragement of Immigration subject to such provisions,
restrictions and privileges as he may think advisable.

6. The principle of making free grants, except
under very special circumstances, has long ceased to form
part of the system of disposing of public lands over which
this Government exercises a control. Mr Cardwell may
probably therefore deem it expedient to instruct the
Governor not to make any free grants without having first
submitted for the consideration of the Secretary of State
a full detail of any plan he may wish to suggest with the
reasons on which it may be founded.

7. Subject to these remarks I see no reason why this
Ordinance should not be left to its operation.