CO885-(10-11) — Page 430

7205.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.

Reference :-

885

ملا

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

SIR,

No. 353A.

(VANCOUVER ISLand.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Lincoln's Inn, July 26, 1865.

We are honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Elliot's letter of the 21st day of June, ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to bring under our consideration the following question, which has arisen in Vancouver Island, respecting the sale, by the Hudson's Bay Company, of a lot of land (hereafter called Lot Z), which is claimed by the Government, as a Government reserve.

Mr. Elliot was pleased to state that in 1849 the Hudson's Bay Company applied to the Secretary of State for confirmation of their title to certain lands, then of little value, which they had occupied in Vancouver Island in connexion with a certain license of exclusive trade granted on the 13th of May 1838 (Parliamentary Paper, House of Lords, 12th February 1849, No. 1). That after a short correspondence, Lord Grey admitted the principle of their demand (Parliamentary Paper, 12th February 1849, No. 4), and directed the Company to frame, for his consideration, a draft conveyance of the lands which they desired to obtain.

But that this narrower question was almost immediately merged, and lost sight of, in a larger proposal, which was made at the same time, and ended in a grant of all Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company for purposes of settlement (13th January 1849).

That this grant (Parliamentary Paper, House of Commons, 7th March 1849, pages 13 to 16) was made in trust, inter alia, to sell the land, "except so much thereof as might be required for public purposes." and to apply nine-tenths of the proceeds to the colonisation and improvement of the island, reserving the remaining one-tenth as profit to the Company. That it also reserved to the Crown the right of re-purchasing the island, on certain terms, upon the expiration of the exclusive license to trade, viz., 13th May 1859.

That the lands originally claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company were not excepted from the grant in trust. That the Company, however, on the strength of Lord Grey's admission, and in spite of the grant, continued to treat them as their private property. That they had them marked out on their own authority, apparently in 1851, to the extent of 3,084 acres; in 1853 they directed them to be registered as belonging to themselves, and reported them to the Colonial Office as their own property (Parlia- mentary Paper, No. 83, of 1852, page 2; Colonial Pamphlet, pp. 10, 12, with Governor's Despatch 10 of 2nd February 1865).

That in 1854, about 10 acres of this land were dedicated as an Indian reserve by the officers of the Company in the island. That this Act was reported to the Com- pany, by whom that reserve is in principle acknowledged (Despatch 10 of 2nd February 1865, and enclosure, and memorandum by Company's solicitor).

That in 1858 Mr. Douglas, who had been appointed Governor by the Crown (Parlia mentary Paper, 7th March 1849, page 18), and was also the Company's agent, with full authority in matters affecting the disposal of land, and Mr. Pemberton who was acting for the Company as surveyor-general, framed, and, it is said, published an official plan of the proposed town of Victoria, of which a copy was annexed, printed subse- quently in 1861. That, in this plan the lands about the reserve were divided off into building lots; the reserve itself was marked as occupied by Government buildings (which were shortly afterwards built), and its southern and western boundaries were altered.

2. That the Company allege, that the original boundary was what the Colonial Government describes as an open drain, but the Company as an old ox fence, separating that reserve from a farm called Bexley or Dutnell's farm, which is marked in the printed plan by a dotted line in ink.

That the substituted southern boundary is that which is given in the official plan, and forms, as will be seen, one side of a proposed street.

That the strip of land lying between the two lines, and now marked on the plan as Lot Z, was thus, according to the Company, added to the reserve. That it contains nearly three acres.

A 59950.-3. 85-188.

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