Hudson's Bay Company Lands and Colonial Farm Settlement on the Mainland of British Columbia 1858-1871

Abstract

Farming operations in the British possessions to the west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the 49th degree, prior to the year i858 (after amalgamation with the North West Company in 1821), were confined exclusively to the agricultural projects of the Hudson's Bay Company at its trading posts and, incidental thereto, the occupation of lands convenient to the posts by servants of the company. The most noticeable of such latter instances were in the vicinity of Fort Kamloops. The privilege of using the land was naturally exercised by the company under the assumption that the right of trade with the Indians carried with it the right to occupy lands at the trading posts and at the same time to occupy farming areas for production of crops to sustain the occupants of the posts and animals engaged in carrying supplies to and from the forts. Until the gold rush of the year 1858 there had been no statutory authority for the administration of public affairs except by the Hudson's Bay Company, under its license for exclusive trade with the Indians. When that authority was revoked on September 2, i858, under authority of An Act to provide for the Government of British Columbia ' enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland on August 2, 1858, the company, through its chief factors, John Wark and Dugald Mac-