Colonial Despatches

1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 9 [Vancouver Island], of the 14th of August, 1 and I hasten to attend to your requisition for information on the subject of the disposal of land in British Columbia, to Companiesor or private individuals.

2. In order to meet your instructions more fully on that subject, I directed Mr Surveyor Pemberton to draw up a report describing in a general manner the existing arrangements for the sale of land on Vancouver's Island, 2 and the proposed arrangements for the sale of land in British Columbia. That report I have now the honor of herewith transmitting to you. It embodies my own views on the subject of land sales, except on one or two points.

3. Mr Pemberton for instance suggests that the system of receiving payment for CrownLands Lands by four annual instalments; instead of immediate payment, should be abandoned, on account of the trouble and difficulty of collecting the instalments, but reasons equally cogent may be urged in support of the existing system, such as the benefit and relief it gives to poor settlers, and I am therefore of opinion that the same system may be extended with advantage to British Columbia in all sales of country lands exceeding 50 acres, but not in sales of Town Lands, which are always paid for on receiving the Title Deeds.

4. We propose to sell country land in Fraser's Riverand and other mining Districts at the fixed price of £1 per statute acre, and Town Land according to the public value of the site. I think however, it might be advisable to adopt a lower selling price than £1 per acre, in purely Agricultural Districts, where no minerals are found, for the purpose of encouraging early settlement. That however is an arrangement which may be reserved for further consideration.

5. I propose for the present to reserve all Mineral Lands, which are generally speaking unproductive under cultivation, for the purpose of revenue, such as a great part of the narrow belt of table land, extending fromthe the River to the mountains, on the banks of Fraser's River, between Forts Hope and Yale.

6. A series of meteor[o]logical observations would no doubt be highly interesting to the public and we propose to have them taken at the Surveying Office as soon as they are established, and we are supplied with the proper instruments.

7. With those few observations I will close my remarks on Mr Pemberton's report.

8. I beg also to assure you that we shall attend to the instructions contained in your said despatch, concerning the disposal of land; preventing persons from squatting on the Public Public lands; keeping separate accounts of all Revenue derived from the sale of land, and its applications at present to the purposes of survey and communication, and the necessary accounts will be furnished from time to time after the public lands are brought into the market.

9. I shall also not fail to give effect to your views in regard to the naturalization of foreigners, and you may rest assured that there will be no just cause of complaint, for favors shewn to the Servants of the Hudson's Bay Company; and that every precaution will be taken to repress speculation and land-jobbing, and to protectthe the public interests committed to my care.