PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND LOAN— COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 10 May 1858)

LORD STANLEY

said, he rose to move a Resolution, to the effect that Her Ma- 400 jesty be authorized to guarantee the payment of a loan, not exceeding £100,000, for the service of the colony of Prince Edward's Island. He did not intend to detain the Committee further than to assure them, that although it was necessary to ask them to assent to this Resolution in order that he might be enabled to introduce a Bill on the subject, they did not thereby pledge themselves either to the principle or to the details of the measure. He believed from what had taken place at an early period of the evening, and also from the proceedings last year with reference to the New Zealand Loan guarantee, that a general opinion was entertained in the House that Imperial guarantees of loans raised for colonial purposes were objectionable in principle, and in that view he fully concurred. He regarded any system of such guarantees as not only dangerous and embarrassing to the Imperial finances, but as contrary to the true interests of the colonies themselves, for these communities ought to understand that coextensive with the right of self-government was the duty of self-support. If he were asked why, having laid down a rule of that kind he proposed to depart from it in this instance, his justification was that the present was a special and exceptional case, and one which was not likely to recur. His justification was that in assisting the colony of Prince Edward's Island to relieve itself from the embarrassment in which it was placed they were not granting any favour or conferring any boon, but were simply, in some degree, repairing a wrong, which had been caused by an act of the Government of this country, and for which, therefore, they were in justice bound to provide a remedy. He could show to what an extent the growth of that colony had been retarded by an act of the Imperial Legislature passed nearly ninety years ago. In 1767, the greater part of the land in the colony, amounting to nearly 1,500,000 acres, was disposed of, he could hardly say by sale, but by public lottery in London, in the course of a single day. No less than 1,340,000 acres were disposed of in sixty-seven lots of 20,000 acres each. These grants were made subject to the condition of introducing a certain number of settlers, at the rate of one for every 100 acres, and also subject to a quitrent varying from 2s. to 6s. per 100 acres, to be paid to the Government. These conditions were in themselves sufficiently improvident, but the Government did not even 401 interfere rigidly, to enforce them on behalf of the colony. Soon after the settlement of the colony the American war broke out, and it was then alleged that the introduction of settlers according to the terms of the agreement had become impossible. Settlers were not introduced, and the Government tacitly, if not in express words dispensed with that part of the obligation. The payments fell into arrear, and were not pressed. The result was that almost the whole soil of the colony was alienated, and that the greater part of the proprietors were absentees, or speculators with very little capital, who from time conditions of their tenure were necessarily placed in a position of antagonism to the great mass of the population. It was well known to all who were acquainted with the feelings of colonial communities that the great desire of every colonist was to become the possessor of land; and from the period he had mentioned the history of Prince Edward's Island presented a record of one long quarrel between the proprietary thus imposed by the Imperial Government upon the colony and the population who were their tenants. Various attempts were made to have the land declared forfeited on account of the non-fulfilment of the original conditions. It would seem, looking back at this distance of time, that such a proceeding was founded in reason, but it was not encouraged by the Government of the day, who adopted a directly opposite course. A large amount of arrears was forgiven in 1818, and at the same time the amount of the very moderate quitrent originally imposed was reduced. In 1830 a further change was made, the quitrent was abandoned, and a land-tax was substituted. About that time the policy of the great mass of the colonists, who had all along been opposed to the proprietary tenure, appeared to have changed, and, instead of seeking to obtain the forfeiture of the estates on the ground of non-compliance With the original conditions, they attempted to drive out the proprietors by imposing upon them excessive and unfair taxation. At the same time a reduction in the value of the colonial currency took place to such an extent that 18d. currency became only worth 1s., a proceeding which reduced in that proportion the rents payable to the proprietors. In 1851 representative government was introduced into the colony, but no attempt was made to settle the land question. On the one hand the colonists complained that 402 the land was alienated, and on the other the proprietary felt aggrieved at being first placed, in consequence of the former acts of the government, in a position antagonistic to the colonists, and then handed over to a legislative body, which was not very likely to do them justice. In 1855 the master was brought to a crisis. The Governor sent home two Acts, one imposing a rate or duty on the rent-rolls of the proprietors for military expenses, and for the further encouragement of education, and the other giving compensation to tenants for improvements. The Imperial Government seldom interposed in the internal affairs of a colony to which representative institutions had been granted, but those Acts were found to be so bad in principle and defective in machinery that the then Colonial Secretary (Sir G. Grey) felt himself bound in November, 1855, to disallow them both. It was to be remarked, too, that the Governor, in sanctioning them, spoke quite as strongly as the right hon. Baronet of the danger of the principle thereby established, and said he only gave his assent to these measures, in the hope of averting still greater evils which might arise from their rejection. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Labouchere) who succeeded the right hon. Baronet wrote to the Governor in December, 1855, to express his intention to resist all measures of a similar character which were aimed at the spoliation of the proprietors. The right hon. Gentleman, feeling, however, the danger of leaving the matter open, suggested that an amicable settlement might be effected by these lands being bought up. The suggestion was acted upon in April 1856, both Houses agreed in proposing a loan of £100,000, to buy up these lands, and asked for the guarantee of the Imperial Legislature, promising to repay the loan in twenty years. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Labouchere) assented to this request. From some cause the Bill was postponed last year, but a promise was given that it should be brought in early in the present Session. The revenue of the colony, which was £12,000 in 1848, was now between £28,000 and £30,000, being an increase in the proportion of five to two in eight years. The colony was free from debt, and though the expenditure nearly kept pace with the income there was a small available surplus. He would not enter into the details. Suffice it to say, that the net rental of the lands proposed for pur- 403 chase was £7,000 per annum, that their value was taken at twenty years rental, that a sinking fund was to be provided, and that the debt to be created would not extend over more than twenty years. The proposal now made would relieve the island from an embarrassment which it did not create for itself, and which had indeed been the direct work of the Imperial Government. The noble Lord concluded by moving that Her Majesty be authorized to guarantee the payment of a loan to an amount not exceeding £100,000 for the service of Prince Edward's Island, with interest not exceeding 4 per cent., and that provision be made out of the Consolidated Fund for the sum payable under this guarantee.