INTEODUCTOEY 17 



encouraged the arts of peace, that a population soon began 

 to press upon the immediately available land; and this 

 circumstance, together with the moderation and certainty 

 of our land taxation, soon bestowed on property in land 

 a value which it had never before possessed. Eival 

 claimants then began to bring forw^ard conflicting, and 

 often long-dormant, claims to possession ; and the courts 

 established for the ordinary business of the country were 

 soon swamped by the number and complexity of these 

 cases. It was found, too, on inquiry, that there had 

 never really existed any clearly recognised right of 

 property, in our sense of the term, which would give the 

 agricultural classes a real interest in the improvement of 

 their lands, while many classes of persons had been allowed 

 to exercise very undefined powers over the whole of this 

 immense area of unreclaimed land. The culturable wastes 

 were becoming much in demand by enterprising settlers, 

 a demand which the opening of the coimtry by the rail- 

 way promised to largely increase. Such operations were 

 clogged by these uncertain claims, and thus the progress 

 of the country was in danger. The forest question also 

 became urgent, timber being required in large quantities 

 by the railways, while a fear arose of the impending 

 exhaustion of the whole forests of the country. Nothing 

 could be effected in this direction either, until the question 

 of title in these wastes should be determined. The Govern- 

 ment then determined to appoint special officers for the 

 settlement of all these matters in every district of the 

 province; and after ten years of hard work, they have 

 now been set at rest. Few persons can conceive the 

 amount of personal labour, in the field and in the office, 

 involved in the settlement of one of these districts. Every 

 village and hamlet has to be visited and every acre of 

 land appraised and assessed; the title of every claimant 

 to any interest in the land has to be investigated from the 

 beginning of time; and finally a minute and accurate 

 record of the whole process has to be drawn up, to form 

 the substantive law for the disposal of future cases in the 

 civil and revenue courts of the district. The grand result, 

 as affecting rights and interests in the land, was, that 



