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

(Continued on Page 4)

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