Colonial Despatches

I have had under my consideration your Despatch, No. 61, of the 19th July, on the subject of the operation of the Vancouver Island Land Proclamation of 1862.

I agree with you that the terms of this Proclamation, which appears never to have been submitted to this Office, are such as to impose obstacles upon the advancement of the Colony. I have therefore to authorize you to prepare a fresh Land Proclamation embodying in it what you may consider to be the appropriate remedies for the evils you have pointed out, in order that, before coming to a final decision, I may have the advantage to be derived from local experience.

As it is probably unadvisable for both Colonies that there should be too striking a dissimilarity between the Land systems of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, I transmit to you a Copy of the British Columbia Land Ordinance, No. 27 of 1865, which has received the Royal Assent. You will observe that this Ordinance embodies the principle of pre-emption, but modifies its operation, by requiring the previous License of the Stipendiary Magistrate of the District before an Applicant can take possession of, and record his claim to any land, and by providing that the pre-emptor's right to acquire additional contiguous land, by an immediate payment of half the purchase money, shall be limited to a right to acquire 480 Acres, except with the express sanction in writing of the Governor. By this means no one can obtain on credit more than one square mile of land, and for three fourths of this, he must pay down half of the purchase money.

Steps should be taken to enforce firmly the resumption of all land forfeited by the non-performance of the conditions of the proclamation of 1862, and you must impress on the Surveying Department the necessity of requiring satisfactory evidence of permanent improvements to the full value required by the 19th Section of the Proclamation before granting the prescribed "Certificate of Improvement."

You have already been made aware by my Despatch of the 12th Instant, that the expenses of managing the Crown Lands form in my opinion a legitimate charge on the Crown Revenue.