COLONIAL POLICY. 297 



of the land, much valuable time is lost after the emigrant has selected 

 the lot he wishes to purchase, having perhaps taken a great deal of 

 trouble to examine the country at considerable expense. By the re- 

 gulations now in force, the land is rated at a minimum price ; in 

 some of our colonies at five shillings currency per acre, in others at 

 ten shillings ditto. At stated periods auctions take place in the dif- 

 ferent districts, generally once every three months, which is duly 

 notified in the gazette. Any person, during the sale, wishing to 

 become a purchaser of a lot of land, names the number of the lot he 

 wishes to have put up to auction, which is immediately done ; he then 

 bids an advance upon the minimum price per acre, generally one 

 penny ; and if there are no other bidders, he, of course, becomes the 

 purchaser, and is then required to pay one-fifth down, the remainder 

 he is allowed to pay in four annual instalments with interest. But it 

 sometimes happens that he is over-bid by persons who endeavour to 

 avail themselves of the experience and knowledge of those who have 

 travelled through the country, and have discovered the most valuable 

 situations and the richest soil. The request for a particular lot of 

 land to be put up to auction of itself points out the selection that has 

 been made. This is a great evil in the present system, and it opens 

 the door to spiteful people to vent their malice in raising, by oppo- 

 sition, the price. This is no ideal picture, it has been done in Upper 

 Canada and elsewhere. 



The works rec'ently published upon our possessions in New Holland 

 prove that the same inconvenience attends the system of disposing of 

 the land by auction there, as in our North American possessions. In 

 the United States, the whole of the public lands are sold at a fixed 

 price viz. one dollar twenty-five cents per acre (five shillings and 

 sevenpence-halfpenny sterling) ; the purchaser pays the money down, 

 and immediately receives the title-deed of the property, blank forms 

 of conveyance being kept in the possession of the United States land 

 agent in the several stations, signed, I think, by the President at 

 any rate, by the official officer of that department residing at Wash- 

 ington. This arrangement prevents delay, and the inconvenience of 

 forwarding the document subsequently to the settler's residence, 

 which may probably be at a couple of hundred miles from the land- 

 office. 



When I was at Detroit in 1832, I had a letter of introduction to 



Major -, the United States land agent ; and during an interview 



I had with that gentleman, at his office, I witnessed the disposal of 

 three or four lots of land, which scarcely interrupted our conver- 

 sation. The words that passed between the officer and the applicant 

 were as follow : " Now, you'll jist look if lot No. , in the township 



of , in Franklin county, is vacant ; because I guess I am going 



to locate there, if it is." By reference to a register, he was answered 

 in the affirmative ; a printed form was filled up at once, containing 

 the number of the lot and the agent's signature ; this the applicant 

 was directed to take to the cashier next door, which authorized the 

 receipt of the money, and the settler thereby at once became a legal 

 proprietor of the lot of land. And it was transacted in much less time 

 than I am occupied in writing the account of it. The lot of land is 



M.M. No. 3. 2 Q 



