17 FEBRUARY 1839, Page 9

A considerable part of the Report is devoted to the

important subject of time

DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS.

The remarkable success of the new method of disposing of public land in the Australian Colonies, induced Lord Durham to issue a com- mission of inquiry into the advantages of adopting a uniform system for the disposal of public land in all the British Provinces. The result of the information obtained, is the outline of a plan, to be presented in a separate Report ; which, if adopted, Lord Durham firmly believes, will give an impulse to the prosperity of the North American Colonies, sur- passing what their most sanguine wellwisher, unacquainted with the facts, would be capable of imagining.

The Report describes the system of the United States, which renders the acquisition of new laud easy : while, by means of a price, it re- stricts appropriation, yielding at the same time a revenue of half a mil- lion a year on the average, though it amounted in one particular twelve- month to four millions, or more than the whole expenditure of the Federal Government. In the British North American Colonies there has been no system : the expense of disposing of public lands was greater, for a long time, than the amount received. The prosperity visible on the American side of the frontier line is painfully contrasted by the poverty visible in the British settlement. There is no end of testimony to the fact of the American superiority in this respect. The market value of the land throughout the frontier, from Amherst- burg to the ocean, is much greater on the American than on the British side ; in not a few parts it is 1,000 per cent ; the average difference, as between Upper Canada and the States of New York and Michigan, is nototiously several hundred per cent. Wild land in Vermont and New Hampshire is -worth five dollars an acre, and in the adjoining British townships only one dollar : and the difference is not occasioned by the superiority of the American land in natural fertility, but by the better system of colonizing.

The rei;migration from the British Provinces to the United States, being about 60 per cent. of the whole number emigrating to Canada in the first instance, is occasioned in a great measure. though certainly not altogether, by the mismanagement of public lands iu the Provinces. The extent to which the public lands have been alienated leaves the Government with comparatively small means of encouraging emigrants to remain in the Provinces.

An instance is mentioned of a gross violation of the law in the award of land to the Clergy. " The Constitutional Act" of 1791 directed that one-seventh of the land granted in Upper Canada should be reserved for the clergy ; but the practice has been to set apart for the Clergy one- seventh of all the land, being equal to one-sixth of the land granted; by which proceeding, 300,000 acres, belonging by law to the public, have been made over to the Clergy. The value of Clergy Reserves sold is 317,000/. ; of which sum, 100,000/. has been received and invested in the English Funds ; but 45,000/. legally belongs to the public. Grants of laud have been made to Loyalist refugees from the United States, to militia-men, soldiers and sailors, magistrates and barristers, Exe- cutive Councillors and their families, officers of the Army and Navy, and other individuals,—amounting, with the Clergy Reserves, to nearly half the land in the province. Of this immense quantity, a small portion is occupied by settlers ; and the greater portion has fallen into the hands of land-jobbers, who purchased from unmarried females and persons not intending to settle, sometimes as much as 200 acres for from 2!. to 5/. Extensive purchases were made in this way by Mr. Hamilton, a member of the Legislative Council, Chief Justices Elmslie and Powell, the Solicitor-General Grey, and several members of the Execu- tive and Legislative Councils and of the House of Assembly. Regula- tions to prevent excessive grants of land were evaded, by the convey- ance, previously agreed upon, to one person called "a leader," of lands obtained on the petitions of several ; and this fraud was virtually sanc- tioned by the Colonial authorities. By the delay and difficulties inter- posed, orders for land to Militia-men who served in the last war with the United states, became nearly valueless to the parties who obtained them; and they were mostly sold to jobbers for very small sums. Lord Durham took measures to expedite the settlement of these claims, stop the progress of the fraud, and remedy the injustice as far as possible. In 1837, instructions were issued to discontinue grants of land in Upper Canada. Siuce that time' 100,317 acres have been sold; but 2,000,000 -acres have been disposed of to satisfy antecedent claims, within the same period. In Lower Canada, "the same violation of the law has taken place, with this difference, that upon every sale of Crown and Clergy Reserves, a fresh reserve for the clergy has been made, equal to a fifth of such reserves. The result has been, the appropriation for the clergy of 670,567 acres, instead of 446,000 ; being an excess of 227,559 acres, or half as much again as they ought to have received. The Lower Canada fund already produced by sales amounts to 50,0004 ; of which, therefore, a third, or about 16,0001. belong to the public. If, without any reform of this abuse, the -whole of the unsold Clergy Re- serves in both provinces should fetch the average price at which such lands have hitherto sold, the public will have been wronged to the amount of about 280,0001. ; and the reform of this abuse will produce a certain and almost immediate gain to the public of 60,000/.

Lord Gnderieh's directions, to require payment for land in less time than previously had been allowed, were totally disregarded by the Surveyor-General of Lower Canada ; who was supported in his disobe- dience by the Governor, Lord Aylmer.

The importance of accurate surveys, and the inefficiency of the Sur- veying department in Lower Canada, are especially noticed. The delays and expenses incurred in completing titles, arc' among the most prominent evils in the present mismanagement. The mischievous consequences of large grants of laud to persons not intending to occupy them, in creating deserts and causing settlements/6 be abandoned, are stated on the evidence of the Deputy Surveyor of the Western District ; who says, that "nine- tenths of the land granted by the Crown in that district are still in a state of wilderness." In Prince Edward's Island, the effect of making large grants of land to persons not intending to settle upon it, is seen in the impoverished condition of the inhabitants. The evils attendant upon the neglect of Emigrants are fully explained. Frequently they have scanty provision on board their ships, and are landed with infi!etions diseases : they are too often the victims of frauds committed by ps.rsons in Quebec and other ports, on their arrival. A quarantine establishment has tended to prevent some of the mischief described ; hitt the necessity of numerous improvements in the arrange- ments fire the voyages of emigrants, and in providing for their reception and support in the Colonies, appears from a number of details given in the Report.