VMIAGAZINE SECTION

FULL No. 205

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1938

1858-Eighty Years Of British

Vancouver of

By HAL GRIFFIN

the Pioneers

i By HISTORY as it is generally written 1858 means Jjittle more

to the average British Columbian than the year of the sreat Fraser River gold rush that brought thousands of men from the four corners of the Pacific to seek their fortunes in the virgin

wilderness of New Caledonia.

But 1858 has a far greater significance for the thousands of progressive, forward-looking British Columbians who in 1938 hark back over 80 years of history and wonder what the next few decades hold for the future of their province, linked as it is In indissoluble bonds of national unity with the Dominion

of Canada.

it was in Sept, 1858, that Brit- ish Columbia became.a crown col- ony by act of the British par- liament. It was 1858 that marked

the end of the absolute rule of the Hudson’s Bay Campany and intensified three decades

ef struggle by thé coionists for representative government a strug— fle crowned by success in i871 when British Columbia entered Confederation.

Eighty years is a brief time as history goes and it-is hard to be- lieve that in so short 2 span Van- couver, the coming metropolis of the Pacific, has been reared tron. where, in 1858, it dreamed unborn amid the cedar forests along Bur- rard Inlet. It is hard to believe that in so short a space man has flung his bridges, driven his highways, reared his skycrapers—and created

his slums. :

It is hard te believe that in this sull undeveloped province, so abounding in natural wealth de

spite the myopic waste of tavcse who control it, thousands today maust eke cut an existence on gov- ermment relief because they lack work.

Today, increasingly jealous as we are of our democratic rights and liberties, we can thank the pioneers ef 1858 who fought for and won them. They came from many lands, those early pioneers. From eastern Canada, separated by only a score of years from the rebellion of 1838 jed by William Iyon Mackenzie and Louis Papineau which gained for the people of Upper and Lower Canada the democratie rights Pre- mier Maurice Duplessis of Quebec and the reactionary interests he represents would destroy. :

They came from the _ United States with their great heritage of the American Revolution of 1776. They came from England, from Treland and from Scotland, pring- ing their cherished traditions of freedom and liberty. They came from the many countries of Hurope, seeking escape from oppression.

With them came many adven- turers, caring little for anything out the quick wealth they hoped 0 find in the gold-bearing waters 9f the Fraser and along its sun- scorched benches. But these went iS rapidly as they had come, fol- owing the will-o-the-wisp of casy ortune in still more remote places. Phese went, but the others Pre nained to build a country.

e

HEY found a

of natural wealth, peopled by miy a few whites, for the most art company officials, and the In- jans. They founce the Hudson's Say Company in absolute eontrol,

law unto itself, ruling over a

ast area and jealously guarding

S far-flung interests. For the wel-

are of those under its rule the

ompany cared little, even as the

primeval enipiuc

monopoly interests of 80 years later. Its one purpose was to ex ploit the wealth of the country for the greater benefit of its distant Shareholders and to exclude from its territory all whose intrusion constituted a threat to the con- tinuance of its rule.

The influx of thousands of gold- seekers into New Caledonia signi- fied the beginning of the end for the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly. For half a century, since Simon Fraser in 1808 had estap-— lished its first fur-trading post at Fort Mcleod, the company had

successfully retained its trading monopoly, but it could not hold back the inevitable colonization

and development for ever. Administration of the colony of Vancouver Island since 1851 under James Douglas, who was both gfov- ernor of the colony and chief fac- tor for the Hudson’s Bay Company, had exposed the tyranny of the company’s rule and brought justi- fied complaints both from the few independent settlers and the com- pany s own employees, particularly the coal miners at Fort Rupert In the two years preceding Doug- las’ appointment as governor the determination of the company to brook no interference with its monopoly was even more clearly shown. Indeed, as DLieut. Adam Dundas, who had served two years With the royal navy on the Pacific coast, reported to Earl Grey, then Secretary of state for the colonies, it was “but a natural conclusion then to arrive at that the efforts which the Hudson’s Bay Company are putting forward to obtain either a direct or indirect influence in Vancouver Island are with the sole motive of protracting to as late a period as possible a monopoly which they have so long enjoyed.’ Earl Grey, however, had another reason for wanting the colony of Vancouver Tsland tied closer to the British crown. The @Gregon boun- dary had alarmed the British gov- ernment at the possibility of Amer— icans pushing farther into the

Worthwest and subsequently laying |

S

Colonists

Struggled

Three Decades For

Representative Government

claim to parts of British Columbia. As Earl Grey asked: “What would the company do to avert this dan- ger from a tide of democracy roll- ing north?”

Appointment of Richard Blan- Shard as first governor of the new colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 was intended not to give the col- onists a measure of representative government, but to establish Bri- tain’s authority over this section of the Pacific coast

e

LANSHARD arrived at Victoria

on March 10,1850, aboard HMMS Driver. Of the £300 he paid for his passage out, the company contrib- uted £175, and this was all it ever contributed. Although Douglas had been notified of his coming, Blan- shard found that no preparations had been made. Rather, Douglas and the rest of the company’s high

officials did their best to ignore him. 3 As a result, Blanshard was

obliged to make his headquarters

aboard the Driver, so that ‘for some time thereafter the govern- ment headquarters were migra- tory.”

He had been promised 1000 acres of Jand before leaving England, but the company professed to know nothing of the agreement and re— fused him even 100 acres as an or- dinary settler. Without govyern- ment offices and clerical assistance, he had to pay all his own expenses. At the company’s store he was charged 300 percent above London prices for everything he bought and his living expenses were around £1100 a year.

His investigation of the c¢om- pany s relations with coal miners in its employ at Wort Rupert, on the northeast of Vancouver Island, did nothing to endear him to com- pany officials. He reported tha

the miners were extremely discon-- tented,

their discontent at times

amounting to open revolt at the conditions under which they were obliged to work. Some of them charged that the company had in- stigated the murder of white men by Indians.

After two years of unequal strug- gle, failing to obtain a Sympathetic hearing of his complaints from Earl Grey, Blanshard resigned.

The colonists were apprehensive. As governor Blanshard had lent strength to their opposition to the company. Fourteen settlers, some of them employees of the company, Signed a petition to the British gov- ernment deploring his intending departure and expressing fear or what would happen if the colony were left under the exclusive con- trol of the company.

Hieading the petitioners was Rev. Robert Staines, chaplain at Fort Victoria, an outstanding opponent of the company who was later drowned in 4 shipwreck while on his way to England with a petition from colonists protesting ‘so ty- rannical a rule.”

Signing of this petition was a courageous and desperate action when one remembers the power of

the company and the economic Stranglehold it maintained on the colonists.

e@ HE colonists’ worst fears were realized when James Douglas was appointed governor in Nov., 1851.

Douglas was an autocrat, inter- ested principally in maintaining control for the Hudson’s Bay Com- Pany. In Aug., 1851, before official notification of acceptance of his resignation had been received, Blanshard’s last act as governor had been to nominate a council of three, James Douglas, James Coop- er and John Tod.

Douglas inherited this council, Roderick Finlayson, afterward mayor of Victoria, taking the seat

S

, Colu

rendered vacant by Dougias’ ele- vation to governor. Both Tod and Pinlayson were officials of the com- pany. Cooper, however, an ex- employee of the company, had come up against the monopoly main-— tained by the company when he tried to engage in private trading with natives on the mainland. The company had driven him out by relentless _price-cutting and made for itself a bitter opponent of its policies.

in effect, Douglas was supreme. for the company could and did snap its fingers at the distant cu:onial

office. Tne council’s powers were so limited that, even had it not been composed of company of-

ficials, it could have accomplished little. @

(Oren ZATION was discouraged

by the fact that the company had reserved for itself all land within 10 miles of Victoria. Settlers were forced to go into remote dis- tricts, away from the protection of the fort which was at the same time the only source of supplies.

Land was priced at £1 an acre, with the stipulation that the pur- chaser of every i100 acres must Place five men or three settlers on them. This made it virtually im- possible for colonists of the type the new colony attracted, willing to face the dangers and hardships of an undeveloped country, to obtain the amount of land they needed. The owners of large tracts of land were drawn almost entirely from company officials and a few wealthy settlers.

The demand for land remaineu one of the colonists’ main demands for years until the price was finally reduced from one pound to four shillings and two pence an acre.

So -

ifs essence anti-democratic, Doug-

las opposed institution of rep- resentative government on Vancou- ver Island, just as later he opposed representative povernment for the Separate colony of British CGolum- bia when it was formed in 1858 and he was appointed governor of both colonies.

A despatch from Lord Taunton, secretary of state for the colonies, dated Feb. 28 1856, told Douglas that he could no longer assume that because of the smallness of the population he was entitled to govern with advice from his hana- picked council alone. Douglas was instructed to call together an as- sembly representative of the colon- ists, but a proviso added that ‘‘the power of assenting to or negativing, or suspending, for the assent of the Crown, the measures passed by Such a council, should be distinct- ly reserved to yourself.’

Forced to take some action, Douglas placed the matter before

4

Oe a i hp a eg ip we

his decided

The council that ownership of £300 worth of

council.

freehold property or immovable estate should qualify a person to Stand for the assembly, while Ownership of 20 acres of land should qualify an elector. Aibsentee Proprietors were empowered tea vote through their agents. :

These stipulations disbarred the Majority of employes, miners and others from voting, leaving power still concentrated in the hands of the company. Douglas himself Stated that he was “utterly averse to universal franchise.’’

The colony was divided into four electoral districts. Victoria was given three members, Esquimalt and Metchosin, two, Nanaimo and Sooke, one each. But only in Vic- toria where five candidates con- tested the three seats was there any semblance of an election. In the other electoral districts the elections were little better than nominations of individuals favor_ able to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

No wonder then, that Douglas was able to comment with quiet Satisfaction in his report to Lord Taunton that “the affair passed off quietly and did not appear to excite much interest amonf the lower orders.”

But Douglas was wrongs in sup- posing that the lower orders, as he termed them, excluded from voting by property restrictions, were not Vitally interested in having repre- sentative government, as later events were to show.

Qn Aug. 12, 1856, the assembly, first west of Upper Canada to meet, convened at Victoria. Over it Douglas presided as the real power, impressing his will on its members and deciding on all im- portant issues. In the three years it held office the assembly did little to appease the demands of

the colonists and dissatisfaction continued to increase. e@ OMMENT is made by Adam

Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty in their work, “Canada and its Provinces,” that:

“Representative Sovernment came not by demand of the people who were affected by it, but by: mandate of the British crown. It was not the responsible govern-— ment for which the people in the other provinces had fought and, literally, bled; but it was the first step toward that goal which was finally achieved when British Co- lumbia entered the union of the provinces in 1871.”

The British fSovernment, how- ever, had learned from the rebel— lion 1838 and there is no doubt that the various petitions forward— ed by Vancouver Island colonists, chafing under the Wudson’s Bay Company's monopolistic rule, has— tened establishment of democratic institutions.

But if the form of representative Sovernment came by mandate of the crown, it was the people whe: gave it life, rescued it from the stul— tifying influence of the Hudson’s: Bay Company and transformed it by their agitation into a broader institution designed to register their will.

Perhaps the clearest instance of what class the first assembly re— presented was given by Douglas in 1853 when he appointed his brother-in-law, David Cameron, as supreme court judge, despite the

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