BRITISH COLUMBIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND.
PRELIMINARY NOTES.
By E. D. BACON.
Before laying before the members of the Society the few official notices I have collected in reference to the Stamps of the North American Colonies, I purpose prefacing what remarks I have to make in each case with a short resumé of the history of each of the provinces. These historical particulars are taken for the most part from The Colonial Office List for 1889, and are supplemented by additions from one or two other works of reference.
British Columbia is situated on the north-west coast of North America, and comprises the territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast; bounded on the north by the 60th parallel, and on the south by the United States, the average breadth being about 250 miles, and the length of coast line 450 miles. The area (including Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands) is about 341,000 square miles.
British Columbia was constituted a Crown Colony in 1858, owing to the large immigration consequent on the discovery of gold in that year. Vancouver Island, discovered in 1592 by Juan de Fuca, was leased to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1843, and made a Crown Colony in 1819. In 1866 the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were united, and on July 20th, 1871, British Columbia entered the Dominion of Canada. Vancouver Island is sometimes called Quadra, after the Spanish commandant on the coast of the mainland, at the time that the island was visited, in 1792, by the British naval officer, Captain George Vancouver, from whom it derives its more usual name.
The earliest issue of The Government Gazette, British Columbia, I have been able to find in this country is that of January 7th, 1865. This number contains the following notices:
“PUBLIC NOTICE.