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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 44

Order in Council Respecting the Settlement of Railway Lands. — Copy of a Report of a Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the 9th November, 1877

Order in Council Respecting the Settlement of Railway Lands.

Copy of a Report of a Committee of the Honourable the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the 9th November, 1877.

On a report, dated 30th October, 1877, from the Hon. the Minister of the Interior, stating that, in consequence of the rapidly increasing demand for lands for settlement in Manitoba, and also of the continued dissatisfaction of the locking up of the lands withdrawn for twenty miles on each side of the line surveyed for the Canadian Pacific Railway by the Order in Council of the 20th December, 1874, he is of opinion that it is expedient to effect some amelioration of the conditions of the said Order in Council so far as relates to the lands within the Province.

He, therefore, recommends that the lands in Manitoba withdrawn as above be thrown open to actual settlement, but not for homestead or pre-emptive entry, or for entry by military bounty or police warrants, or for ordinary sale. No person to be allowed to acquire more than one-half section or 320 acres, and such land to be paid for by the occupant at whatever rate and upon such terms as may be fixed therefor by the Government when the remainder of the lands in the Province, of this class, are disposed of.

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He further recommends that persons desiring to acquire such lands shall, previous to settlement thereon, be required to be entered therefore at the nearest Dominion Lands office, and, in order to prove their good faith, the applicants shall be obliged, in each case, to make a payment, in advance, at the time of entry, of one dollar per acre in cash on account of the purchase, and further be required to settle on and commence to cultivate the land within one year from the date of entry, or, in default thereof, the payment so made to be forfeited.

No scrip of any kind, or military bounty, or police warrants to be receivable in payment of the lands above described.

The Minister observes that the withdrawal of the lands in question was effected under section 105 of the Dominion Lands Act, circumstances not permitting the application thereto of the Act 37 Vic. cap. 14, which provides for the construction of the railway, and as no statute exists authorizing the special mode above suggested of disposing of the lands withdrawn, it will be advisable to confirm the action proposed to be taken as above in that respect by legislation during the ensuing session of Parliament.

The Committee concur in the foregoing Report, and recommend that the same be approved and acted on.

Certified. (Signed,)

W. A. Himsworth, C. P. C.