Murdoch to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

I have to acknowledge your letter of 15th instant
enclosing a despatch from the Governor of British Columbia
on the subject of the claims of the Hudsons Bay Co to
land in that Colony.

2. Governor Douglas states that the inconvenience
arising from the unsettled state of the Company's claims
becomes daily more apparent, and that the difficulty of
a final settlement will increase in proportion to the
delay in arriving at it. He therefore suggests as a basis
of Settlement, that the places occupied by the Company as
existing Forts or Posts, and which are necessary for carrying
on their business, should be transferred to them in fee,
together with any fields or gardens actually enclosed by
fences & under cultivation—provided that no such grant
should exceed 100 Acres of Country land at any one place,
except at New Langley and Kamloops, where the Company have
a number of Cattle and Horses. In those places the grants
he suggests might be increased to 500 Acres. In the Towns
Governor Douglas proposes that the Grants should be restricted
to building lots actually occupied by the Company's business houses.

3. This arrangement the Governor proposes as a liberal
concession to the equitable claims of the Company, and as
exceeding what they are legally entitled to claim. If there
were any probability that they would accept it, it would
I think be unquestionably an advantageous settlement for the
public. But it falls so very far short of the claims put forward by the Company, and supported on a former occasion by
Governor Douglas himself, that I cannot believe it possible that the Company should accept it.

4. In the Month of October 1858 the Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co Mr Berens, brought the question of the Company's
claim to the Lands they had occupied in B. Columbia under the
consideration of Sir E.B. Lytton. On the 16th of the
following November Sir E. Lytton transmitted the correspondence
to Governor Douglas, and directed him to furnish a report
on the extent and nature of the Cos claims. In that despatch
Sir E. Lytton stated that he was prepared to draw a considerable
distinction between land which had been subjected to cultivation
or had involved outlay on the part of the Company, or was
necessary to the maintenance of their existing stock or
establishments, and land which had served the more occasional
purpose of affording pasturage to herds or beasts of burden.

5. The report thus called for was furnished by Governor Douglas' despatch of 31st May 1859. The result was that
the land claimed by the Company amounted in all to 98,000 Acres,
that of this 10 Acres were in the Town of Old Fort Langley,
6,400 Acres in its immediate vicinity and 640 Acres in the
Town of Fort Hope, that the whole of the Land had "involved
outlay" on the part of the Company and that upwards of 80,000 Acres
had been brought into partial cultivation and were necessary for
the maintenance of existing Stock. The Company further
claimed £5,000 for making roads and for land between Fort Hope
& Thompsons River improved by the sowing of Grass seed.

6. To these extensive claims Governor Douglas at the time
gave an earnest support, urging the Title of the Company to
liberal consideration and alleging the recognition of similar
claims within the United States Territory by the Oregon Treaty
of 1846. Upon this subject I would request a reference
to the report from this Office of 29th Augt 1859. A
great change it appears has since taken place in Governor
Douglas' views on the subject, but there is no probability
that a similar change has taken place in the Company's views.
I should have no expectation, therefore, of any result from
Governor Douglas' proposition, nor is it made in so definite a form as to admit of any conclusive action. At the same time
it might be as well to communicate it to the Company for any
observations they might desire to make, which might afford some
information as to the light in which they themselves regard their claims.