The history of the disposal of Crown lands in British
Columbia is in reality the history of the economic development
of the province. It covers the progress of British Columbia
from its days as a hunting and trading preserve of the
Hudson's Bay Company through its brief colonial period and
formative years as a province down to its years of rapid
settlement and development in the decade before 1913. Once
the colonial period had passed, the attack upon the natural
resources began in earnest. So rich and abundant did those
resources of land, mine, forest, and water prove that British
Columbia found itself launched into an industrial era almost
before adequate legislation had been framed to deal with its
land and resources.
Legislation was necessary to guide the economic
progress of the province and to establish regulations governing
the disposal of Crown land and its appurtenant resources
of mineral, timber, and water. The laws were framed always
with a view to accomplishing three things - encouraging settlement,
forestalling speculation, and securing revenue. Since
in every case the basis of provincial legislation was to be
found in the proclamations and ordinances framed from 1858
to 1864 by Governor Douglas, a survey of colonial regulations
is needed to clarify subsequent policy.
To assist him in framing proclamations for guiding
the progress of the two colonies, Douglas looked to the
Colonial Office, the terms under which the Hudson’s Bay
Company had held Vancouver Island, and his own judgment. The
first regulations adhered closely to principles laid down by
the Colonial Office. Douglas was carefully instructed to
ward off speculation in public lands by making beneficial use of
the criterion of alienation. No agricultural land was to be
pre-empted other than by bona fide settlers. Land was not
to be sold without some guarantee that it would be improved.
Timber leases were to be granted only to the operators of saw
Mills. Miners could not divert water from streams unless it
was needed at once. By 1871 the principle of beneficial use
had been so thoroughly established in law that it was never
thereafter abandoned. Practice, however, was at variance
with principle and until the McBride ministry had devised
adequate administrative machinery after 1909 little could be
done to enforce regulations.
Secondly, Douglas was instructed to reserve certain
rights to the Crown. Gold, wherever found, was so reserved;
by 1913, silver, coal, natural gas, and oil had been added.
Land for government purposes was similarly reserved to the
Crown.
As for other principles, Douglas found he could not
enforce them in the face of existing conditions. Sale of
land by auction did not work, nor did insistence upon
immediate payment. Neither principle could prevail for long.
To secure money, Douglas soon discovered he must dispose of
lands on easy terms. Had the Colonial Office seen fit to
heed Douglas's plea to lend credit to the new Pacific colonies
to relieve them of the pressing need for money, the subsequent
wholesale alienation of large tracts of the best land at very
low prices would have been unnecessary. Beneficial use, sale
only by auction, cash sales, and survey prior to alienation
could all have been firmly established and carefully supervised.
As it was, British Columbia did none of these things
and indeed, became the only province in Canada where land
could be alienated prior to survey.
Prom 1871 to 1913 British Columbia followed the
pattern set in colonial days. The only reason the province
retained ninety per cent of the timber stands was that, before
legal safeguards were enacted, timber was regarded more as a
nuisance than as an asset. But the necessity for securing
revenue by selling or otherwise disposing of Crown lands on
as easy terms as possible established a pattern of thinking
that was to see the reckless alienation of millions of acres
of land to railway promoters between 1883 and 1900. Much
of the land was later repurchased. And because of the
difficulties which arose between the Dominion and the province
over jurisdictional conflicts stemming from the presence of a
forty-mile strip of land through the heart of the province
granted in exchange for rail connections with eastern Canada,
enough ill-feeling was engendered to make the allotting
of Indian reserve lands one of the most vexed problems In
provincial history.
Crown lands in unlimited quantity were disposed of
to land and timber speculators and railway promoters from
1871 to 1900. Not until 1900 did provincial governments
begin to question the wisdom of such wholesale alienation.
Land was so eagerly sought from 1905 to 1913 that effective
machinery was finally devised to regulate its disposal on
terms most favourable to the province. Pre-emptions were
inspected, water rights were clarified, timber lands were
placed under reserve for sale of the timber by auction only,
extensive surveys of agricultural lands were made, and
settlement was at last directed to areas served by
communication facilities. By 1913 Crown lands and their
natural resources were recognized for what they were -
priceless expendable assets and the people’s heritage - no
longer to be disposed of heedlessly but rather to be conserved
for posterity. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/42403 |
| Date | January 1956 |
| Creators | Cail, Robert Edgar |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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