On Every Section-Line Running North And South And To Every
Alternate Running East And West Nine Feet, Or One Chain, Is Left
For Roads.
Our farm-buildings are not quite in the centre of the
estate, on account of having to make the drive up to the house
beyond the marsh on the eastern boundary.
I have drawn you a plan of the farm; the spaces covered with
little dots are the marshes: the one on the west extends for
miles, and has a creek or dyke dug out by Government to carry off
the water. From the drawing it looks as if there was much marsh
around us; but this bit of ground was the driest that could be
found not already taken up. As it was, A - - purchased it of a man
who has some more land nearer Winnipeg, giving him five dollars
per acre. The Nos. 30 and 31 mean the sections of the townships.
For emigrants wishing to secure a "homestead," which is a grant of
160 acres given by Government free, with the exception of an
office-fee, amounting to ten dollars on all the even-numbered
sections of a town-ship, he will now have to travel much further
west, as every acre around Winnipeg is already secured, and has in
the last two years risen most considerably in value.
The Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, which was given by Government
25,000,000 acres, besides the 25,000,000 dollars to make the line
across the country from Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to the Rockies,
sell their land (which is on odd-numbered sections of every township
for twenty-four miles on each side of the track, with the exception of
the two sections, 11 and 29, reserved for school-lands) for two
dollars fifty cents, or ten shillings per acre, to be paid by
instalments, giving a rebate of one dollar twenty-five cents, or five
shillings per acre, if the land is brought into cultivation within the
three or five years after purchase.
A man occupying a "homestead" is exempt from seizure for debt,
also his ordinary furniture, tools, and farm implements in use,
one cow, two oxen, one horse, four sheep, two pigs, and food for
the same for thirty days; and his land cultivated, provided it is
not more than the 160 acres; also his house, stables, barns and
fences; so that if a man has bad luck, he has a chance of
recovering his misfortunes.
In one of your letters you ask if a poor man coming out as labourer,
and perhaps eventually taking up land as a homestead or otherwise,
would encounter many difficulties. I fancy not, as both the English
and Canadian Governments are affording every facility to emigrants,
who can get through tickets from London, Liverpool, or Ireland at even
a lower rate than the ordinary steerage passenger. They can have
themselves and their families booked all the way, the fares varying
from nine pounds five to the twenty-eight pounds paid by the saloon.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 18 of 66
Words from 8908 to 9418
of 34200
