Archive for January, 2010

This is an article that appeared in Popular Science in August of 1886 and discusses the problems with land ownership on PEI.

Recognizing the failure of every attempt at grappling with the land question, by means which left solution to voluntary sales or voluntary purchases, the Island Legislature in 1868 urged on British Government the necessity for the adoption of compulsory measures. The plea led to no action, pending the proposed entrance of Prince Edward Island as a member of the Canadian Confederation. That Confederation, established in 1867, made repeat overtures for the admission of the province before the union in 1873 was perfected. The terms of the union provided the means of solving the question which for more than a century had troubled a fertile and promising province. It was agreed on entering the Confederation that the Island Government, which had no public lands and was surrendering its rights to custom levies, should receive from the Dominion treasury $800,000; this enabled the province to purchase the township lands from proprietors on terms intended to be just and equitable. Three commissioners were appointed for the duty of purchase; The Governor-General appointed one, the Provincial Government the second and each several proprietor had the privilege of appointing the third for the hearing of his case. In estimating the compensation to be paid proprietors, the commissioners were required to consider:

1. The price at which other proprietors had already sold their lands to the Government.

2. The number of acres under lease in the estates valued, the length of such leases, the rents agreed for under these leases, the arrears of rent, the years over which they expended, and the reasonable probability of recovery.

3. The number of acres of vacant or unleashed land; their quality and value to the proprietor.

4. The gross rent actually paid for the previous six years; the expenses of collecting such rent being deducted, to show the net amount actually received by the proprietor.

This is an article that appeared in Popular Science in August of 1886 and discusses the problems with land ownership on PEI.

For twenty-one years after Lord Goderich’s vain recommendations, the agrarian history of Prince Edward Island was one ceaseless turmoil. In 1853 an act was passed by the Provincial Legislature for the purchases of estates of proprietors who might be disposed to sell. Between 1854 and 1871 thirteen estates, aggregating 457,260 acres, were bought at the moderate average price of $1.31 per acre. Of this area, 403,050 have been sold to 5,704 tenants, who have paid, for their average holdings of 70 acres, prices ranging from 94 cents to $3.40, and averaging $1.76. This act of 1853, which depended on the voluntary sale by proprietors of their lands, was too slow in operation for the discontented islanders. They obtained the concurrence of the Legislature and the landlords to a proposal that a commission be appointed with power to devise a system
whereby leasehold lands might be converted into freehold. Accordingly, in 1860 a commission was constituted- Hon. John H. Gray being nominated by the British Government, Hon Joseph Howe by the Legislature of the island, and Hon. J.W. Ritchie by the proprietors. The Legislature, most anxious for the quieting of an agitation which had done the colony incalculable harm, passed an act in advance to give effect to the award of the commissioners. That award, however, had no sooner been published, than he proprietors objected to the manner in which it provided for the valuation of the land. This objection was sustained, the award set aside, and another attempt to quiet the strife between landlords and tenants proved fruitless. Wild excitement prevailed as a result of what was regarded as the bad faith of the proprietors. An organization known as the “Tenant League” came into existence, and resistance was offered to the collection of rent by civil officers. Frequent and violent riots gave the appearance of Erin itself to the colony, and troops from Halifax were summoned to quell the disturbances.

In 1862 the Provincial Government passed an act which expired in 1874, intended to give peace to the island. Under it tenants could offer to buy leased lands from landlords at fifteen years’ purchase, the Government aiding by advance to the extent of eight shillings and sixpence per acre at six per cent interest, all arrears of rent to May, 1853, due by purchases, being cancelled. This act also proved disappointing. Few tenants availed themselves of it, the majority of leaseholders entertaining the idea that the lands would come to them on better terms of purchase than those provide in the act, very probably reversion to the crown.

This is an article that appeared in Popular Science in August of 1886 and discusses the problems with land ownership on PEI.

Lord Goderich, Colonial Minister in 1832, made a thorough examination of the complaints of the islanders, embodying the results in a lengthy dispatch. He found large tracts unimproved, in expectation that their value would ultimately be raised by the exertions of those colonists who were busy cultivating their property. Vast areas of wild land separated farms from one another, the absenteeism of the landlords. Lord Goderich proposed that the quit-rents due by the proprietors be exacted, and, as a concession, should be redeemable at fifteen year’s purchase. His proposal was not acted upon, and the agitation on the island rose to an extreme. All this, too, with particular political condition. The Local Government, in the immediate presence of its governed population, was extremely sensitive to popular discontent. Agriculture was the main and almost sole industry; the tenants were not mingled with any manufacturing or mercantile class, and the preponderant pressure of their interests was very manifest in a legislative hall which stood within an easy drive of the average island farm. The arm of the law was enfeebled. Rents were usually allowed to fall into long arrears before resort was taken to legal measures of collections, it was common for a tenant to owe five to ten year’s rent. Arrears, accumulated through sixteen and even eighteen years, were sometimes brought before the courts. Usually, in suits for rent, the landlord paid the costs himself, and did not extract interest. Frequently proprietary rights were disposed of to speculators for nominal sums. Every indulgence by landlord to tenant was interpreted by the latter as a just concession from the possessor of as faulty title. The cost of collecting such rents as were paid was commonly about one fourth.

This is an article that appeared in Popular Science in August of 1886 and discusses the problems with land ownership on PEI.

On these terms the original proprietors took possession, and in the following year petitioned the British Government that the island might be given the separate government.  To defray its expenses the proposed that a moiety of quit-rents due in five years should become payable in two-during May, 1769-payment of the remaining half to be postponed for 20 years.  Trusting to the good faith and responsibility of proprietors, the local government was accordingly established.  This trust was disappointed.  The quit-rents were not paid as agreed, and 10 years after the grants had been conveyed the conditions of settlement had been complied with in but 10 townships of the 65.  Nine others were settled in part, and all the remainder neglected.  In no case were the settlers the foreign Protestants bargained for.

As time passed, the proprietors continued their disrespect for the conditions of tenure.  The Legislature of the island constantly directed the attention of the Government at Westminster to the facts, and urged the escheat of the grants; holding, perhaps not very warrantably, that after escheat the tenants would enjoy their lands on better terms.  Indulgence, however, was from time to time sought and received by the proprietors.  Nevertheless, in 1802, the Colonial Secretary, a dispatch to the governor of the island, ordered that such lands as were held by the proprietors who had failed to perform their conditions of grant be escheated.  Accordingly, the Legislature passed an act, the result of which would have been to revest in the crown nearly every acre in the colony.  What became of this law is a mystery; it was sent from Charlottetown, the colonial capital, to London, for the Royal Allowance, and was never afterward heard of.  In the same year (1802), the arrears of quit-rents had a cumulative to 60,000 pounds; and the British Government, wishing to encourage the settlement of the colony, determined to accept the moderate commutation.  Leniency or favor was invariably shown proprietors who they complied in any degree with the conditions of their tenure.  Yet this liberal measure was unavailing-the commuted arrears were not paid.  Up to 1833 but 6000 pounds had been received for quit-rents, whereas the total due under the grants was 145,000 pounds.  Meanwhile agitation on the subject among the islanders constantly increased, until the British Government was again urged to quiet it’s perturbed little colony.