§ MR. WYLDsaid, he would beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If Her Majesty's Government have signified their intention to make grants of land to the extent of 1,000,000 acres in portions of the Crown Territory traversed by a proposed telegraphic line between Canada and British Columbia; if the Government have determined in what district of the territories of British 1053 North America the grant of 1,000,000 acres is to be made; and if the People to be settled upon the lands so granted are to be subject to the Government of the Province of Canada, or to the Governors of the Colony of British Columbia?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, in reply, that the best answer he could give would be to refer the hon. Gentleman to two sentences from the Papers on this subject which had been laid upon the table. He would find on page 13, in reference to the telegraph, the following:—
In case the route shall run through Crown land not within the limits of Canada or British Columbia, nor within the territory claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company, the company shall be entitled to demand Crown grants to the extent of five square miles for every mile of telegraph line within such Crown land. Such grants shall be demandable as soon as the telegraphic communication shall be completed across such Crown land; and the blocks granted shall be adjacent to the telegraph line, and shall be as near as may be five miles square, and shall alternate on each side of the line with blocks of similar size and frontage, which shall remain in possession of the Crown.Again, the Duke of Newcastle said—His Grace apprehends that the Crown land contemplated in Article 3 is the territory lying between the eastern boundary of British Columbia and the territory purporting to be granted to the Hudson's Bay Company by their charter. His Grace must clearly explain that Her Majesty's Government do not undertake in performance of this article of the agreement to go to the expense of settling any questions of disputed boundary, but only to grant land to which the Crown title is clear.The district to which the Question of the hon. Gentleman referred, if it existed at all, lay between the western limits of the territory claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company and the eastern limits of British Columbia. It was probable it would be under the Government of Canada, as it was separated from British Columbia by a mountain chain. But whatever form of Government was to be adopted there would be best decided when the settlement took place. To discuss it in the mean time would be premature.