H.B.C. Helped Settlers Remain on Land During “Lean Years”
Liberal and Constructive Policy of Company in Disposal of Its Farm Land Estate in Canada Has Obtained Agriculturists for the West and Kept Them
PROBABLY no institution or organization in Canada has done more towards pioneering and paving the way for settlement than the Hudson’s Bay Company. From the very beginning, when the first white settlers began to arrive, agricultural lands were made available for settlement by the Company in the Red River Valley, and as the demand increased, prairie lands were surveyed into regular townships, and lands accruing to the Company were made available for sale at reasonable prices, and every inducement and encouragement given to agriculturists to settle thereon.
There were, of course, in those days, lean years as well as years of abundant crops, but prices which could be realized for grains were usually very low, and facilities for exporting were quite inadequate.
There were periods of depression and sometimes hardship, when the early settlers and purchasers of the Company’s lands were unable to meet their interest payments, and in some cases the farmers could not even meet their taxes. During these difficult times, when lands were not by any means of such great value as they are today, and land was a doubtful security, the Hudson’s Bay Company never wavered in its confidence in the future of the West, and in order to assist in maintaining the optimism of the settlers, the Company did not unduly press for the liquidation of its purchasers’ obligations, but gave every encouragement to the farmers who suffered reverses, would even advance taxes to tide them over until crop conditions improved and they were able to meet their commitments.
These conditions obtained fairly often, and by reason of unbounded faith in the future of the prairie provinces by the Company’s officials, hundreds of settlers and agriculturists were retained for Western Canada, who in other circumstances would have abandoned their farms and left Canada for other parts.
Long before Dominion Government Surveyors were sent west to sub-divide the prairies into rectangular townships under the existing system of Dominion Government Surveys, and previous to the surrender of Rupert’s Land by the Company to the Crown, the Company arranged to have laid off farming plots fronting on the Red River, running east and west to a distance back of two or more miles.
The first regular sale of farming land by the Company under the Government system of surveys is designated as sale No. 1, the land having been sold to William McKechnie, of Emerson, Man. The sale was negotiated on the 4th of August, 1879, covering the whole of section 8, township 1, range 3, east of the principal meridian, containing 640 acres, at the price of $6.00 per acre, the total consideration being $3,840.00, which in those days was considered very fair compensation for such land.
In the present day administration of the Company’s land, the same sound policy prevails, and by this time the Company has sold many thousands of parcels and continues to make sales, preferring always to deal with and sell to bona-fide settlers.
No purchaser of Hudson’s Bay Company’s farming lands who has made an honest endeavour to cultivate the land and use it for legitimate farming purposes has ever had just cause for complaint in the treatment he has received at the Company’s hands. Lean years are bound to come, and adversity as the result in some cases is bound to follow, and when it is fairly established to the Company that the farmer has done his part within reason, he has not been unduly pressed for liquidation of his indebtedness.
Under the regular terms of Hudson’s Bay farm land sales, the contracts mature in seven years, but it sometimes happens that, on account of adversity over which the purchaser has no control, it has taken him from twenty to twenty-five years before he has been able to fully meet his obligations and obtain title. The Company has always been very patient and lenient with this class of purchaser. This method of dealing with settlers and farmers is fundamentally sound, and instead of a dissatisfied purchaser abandoning his interest and leaving the West, he ultimately becomes the possessor of his farm, is retained to Canada, and is a worthy asset to the community to which he belongs. The Company’s persistent policy in dealing with its estate in Canada is fully in keeping with its traditions in every branch of its business, and according to the Company’s Land Commissioner, “the policy of the directors, as above outlined, has been and is still one of the chief reasons why the Company has thousands of satisfied land purchasers, customers and friends with whom it has had dealings during the past forty-two years.
“To date the Company has disposed of over three and a half million acres of farming lands in the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and sales continue to be effected at the rate of approximately 20,000 acres per month. Practically all the lands are sold for development and farming purposes.
“The Company will continue its sound, proven policy always preserving, under all circumstances, its established name for fair dealing, with the primary object always of contributing, in the fullest measure possible within its powers, towards the up-building of Western Canada, and incidentally doing its quota towards the building, enlargement and ever increasing integrity of the British Empire.”
