1907 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 179 



Leaders and Associates. 



In Lower Canada a method by which the law was ingeniously evaded 

 and influential persons enabled to secure the title to very extensive areas 

 speedily came into operation. It was known as the system of leaders and 

 associates. The individual who was to reap the benefit of the transaction 

 undertook the settlement of a township or smaller area. As leader he secured 

 the signature of a number of other applicants for land, termed associates, 

 who were supposed to be desirous of settling in a body upon the land. 

 Each name represented 1,200 acres of land and when a sufficient number of 

 names had been obtained, the requisite official formalities were complied 

 with and the patents issued. The associates then for a trifling money con- 

 sideration conveyed their lots to the leader. The latter usually took care 

 to assure this by having each associate sign an agreement, simultaneously 

 with the petition for a grant, binding himself to convey to the leader from 

 1,000 to 1,100 acres in consideration of the trouble and expense of procur- 

 ing the survey and grant. The remaining 100 to 200 acres was afterwards 

 conveyed by the associates for one or two guineas as the case might be, 

 which was the real consideration for the use of their names. The system 

 was so open and generally recognized that blank forms of such agreements 

 were printed and publicly sold by the Quebec law stationers. 



Mr. Buller states that during the administration of one Governor, Sir 

 R. S. Milne, and under the same six members of the Executive Council who 

 constituted the Land Board, 1,425,000 acres were granted to about 60 

 individuals. 



Lavish Grants. 



"The profusion of this land granting Board was rewarded by the Duke 

 of Portland by grants of nearly 120,000 acres of land, rather less than 

 48,000 being granted to the Governor, and rather less than 12,000 acres to 

 cash of the Executive Councillors of which it was composed. 



Several of the Executive Councillors themselves figure in the list of 

 "leaders" of townships. 



The system was introduced into Upper Canada, but never fairly estab- 

 lished. Some ten townships were granted in this manner, but the rush of 

 applications was so great that the Council was induced, not only to abandon 

 the system, but to rescind the grants maHe, giving each leader who 

 attempted to fulfil the conditions of the grant 1,200 acres. Mr. William 

 Berczy, to \fhom the township of Markham had Keen assigned, and who 

 had acted in good faith in actually settling a body of immigrants on the 

 land, was ruined by the action of the Council in rescinding the arrange- 

 ment. 



Grants of 1,200 acres each were made to individuals of favored classes, 

 including magistrates, barristers, and executive and legislative councillors 

 who received as much as 5,000 acres each, with additional grants of 1,200 

 each to their children. From 1791 to 1804 these grants were altogether 

 gratuitous, with the exception of fees sufficient to compensate the officials 

 concerned in passing the grant for their trouble. 



In the course of the latter year a scale of fees, proportioned to the 

 extent of the grant, was introduced by the order of the Governor-in-Council, 

 upon the payment of which almost anyone was at liberty to obtain a grant. 

 Privileged persons, such as U. E. Loyalists, militiamen, etc., were exempt 

 from any payment. In 1818, in addition to fees, the performance of set- 



