No. 60

I have the honor of transmitting herewith, for Your Grace's
information, the Copy of a Proclamation issued on the 27th
day of August last, entitled the "Pre-emption Consolidation Act 1861."

2. The object sought to be accomplished by this measure is
to bring within the compass of one general Act, all the several
proclamations regulating the pre-emption of land, and to arrange
in a simple and lucid form the provisions of those Acts, so that
every person desirous of settling in British Columbia and of
acquiring unsurveyed land, may know how to proceed, and the
rights which are secured to him by law.

3. The Pre-emption Consolidation Act is therefore as its
name imports, a mere rearrangement, excluding some few objectionable
features of former Acts affecting the acquisition of unsurveyed
land in British Columbia. It is the result of much care and reflection, and considerable experience of the working of this peculiar mode of acquiring land has been brought to bear in its
preparation.

4. I may here remark that this Act has no application to the
surveyed lands of the Colony, which are in all cases sold at public auction, under the direction of the Commissioner of Lands
and Works; the upset price being in all such cases fixed at four
shillings and two pence per acre for Country land.

5. In consequence of the great expense of moving surveying
parties from place to place, the very limited demand for surveyed
land, and the migratory character of the population of British Columbia, which makes it impossible to determine what course settlement will take or where surveyed land may be wanted, it has been thought advisable to postpone the general survey until the population and the demand for country land increases.

In the meantime the Pre-emption Consolidation Act enables bona fide
settlers and improvers to make homesteads for themselves without waiting
for the official survey, leaving each individual—within the conditions
specified in the Act—the unfettered choice of situation, extent and
boundary. All classes of settlers are provided for by the Act—the monied capitalist, as well as the labourer who brings only his own skill and
enterprise—on condition of actual residence and settlement.

6. The Act does not directly impose any "settlement duties",
but it withholds the power to sell or assign land, held under its
provisions, until the settler has made improvements to the extent
of ten shillings per acre.

7. The settler, who from want of means, is only able to
utilize a small piece of land, will not be harrassed or distressed for the purchase money, and he is secured in the ultimate conveyance
of the land at four shillings a two pence per acre. The monied
settler who contemplates larger acquisitions may, besides a claim
of 160 acres, enter into possession of any contiguous land, on
paying therefor two shillings and one penny per acre, as security
that it is held for the purpose of immediate settlement.

8. Provision is thus made for the real wants of all classes,
while the Colony has the best possible security against the mere
speculative holding of land for profitable resale.

9. As the Act contains nothing that is new in principle, and
no provision that has not previously received your Grace's sanction,
I submit it with confidence for Her Majesty's approval.