178 REPORT OF THE No 3 



Public Lands Administration. 



Hon. Charles Buller, Commissioner of Crown Lands for Lower Canada, 

 who was commissioned by Lord Durham to investigate the manner in which 

 Crown Lands had been disposed of, thus speaks of the systematic disregard 

 of the instructions issued by the British Government officials. 



"It is true that while in name the property of the Crown was under 

 the control of an English Minister, these lands have been in effect adminis- 

 tered by colonial authorities for purely colonial purposes. It was indeed 

 impossible that it should be otherwise. The execTition of the instructions 

 from time to time issued by successive Secretaries of State, or Lords of the 

 Treasury, has been of necessity entrusted to those who in the colonies were 

 th© peculiar representatives of the English Crown; the Governor acting 

 with the advice of his Executive Council. But the power nominally given 

 to the Governor vested in effect entirely in his Council ; and the members 

 of that Council being resident in the colony, having interests of their own 

 to promote, or friends whom they desired to benefit, or it may be enemies 

 whom they were willing to injure, have uniformly exercised their power for 

 local or personal objects, unchecked by a control which in this respect could 

 only be nominal." 



Land Grants. 



The main abuse from which the country suffered during the period of 

 maladministration was the granting of wild lands in large tracts, under 

 one pretext or another, to individuals or companies, who had no intention 

 of settling on or improving them, but simply held them for the rise in value 

 which they anticipated as the result of opening up the country. 



The system of granting wild lands was so frequently altered, and the 

 conditions as to settlement or payment of fees so various owing to the differ- 

 ent classes of claimants, that it would be a piDfitless undertaking to attempt 

 to follow the numerous changes in the regulations in Upper Canada and 

 Lower Canada, more especially as varying methods were often in opera- 

 tion at the same time. But under whatever regulations were in force, and 

 despite occasional attempts to restrict the tendency to the lavish granting 

 of large areas without guarantees for their improvement, the practice was 

 continued under one pretext or another. 



When the country fell into the hands of the British, extensive grants 

 were made, some in free and common soccage, according to the English land 

 tenure and others in fief and seigniory in the same manner as those made 

 by the French prior to the conquest. The influx of U. E. Loyalists at the 

 close of thef American war of Independence was followed by an increased 

 number of land grants principally in the part of the Province which sub- 

 sequently became Upper Canada. After the separation of the Provinces in 

 1791, fresh instructions were issued by the Home Government, the chief 

 object of which was to provide against the evils resulting from excessive 

 grants to individuals, which established 200 acres as the limit of a grant. 

 Certain duties of settlement were attached to every grant, in default of 

 which the land granted was to revert to the Crown. The Governor, how- 

 ever, possessed the power to make an exceptional addition to the grant, and 

 this power appears to have been so freely and frequently exercised as prac- 

 tically to nullify the restriction as to the area to be granted. 



