COLONIAL REPORTS—MISCELLANEOUS.
No. 54.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
REPORT BY THE GOVERNOR ON A VISIT TO
THE MICMAC INDIANS AT BAY D'ESPOIR.
Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.
September, 1908.
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1908.
[Cd. 4197.] Price 2d.
No. 54.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
REPORT BY THE GOVERNOR ON A VISIT TO THE MICMAC INDIANS AT BAYD'ESPOIR.
The Governor to the Secretary of State.
Government House,
St. John's,
8th July, 1908.
My Lord,
I have the honour to inform you that I left St. John's on the 28th Mayto visit the settlement of the Micmac Indians at Bay d'Espoir, on thesouth coast of this Island.
Bay d'Espoir is a long inlet of the sea, extending up country over ascore of miles. The district is hilly, and is covered by a forest ofrather small trees, spruce and birch, but further inland the hills aregenerally bare. There are comparatively few European residents in thisbay.
2. The Micmac settlement is on a reservation situated on the easternside of the Conne arm of the bay, with a frontage to the water of 230chains, with an average depth of about 30 chains. It is on the slopeof a wooded hill which is generally steep down to the sea, and at mostplaces hard and rocky, covered by spruce forest. Most of the Micmachouses are on an area of about a quarter of a mile, where the groundis least steep and most suitable for building and gardening. InAppendix I. hereto is given a list of the 23 families, consisting of131 persons, now living on or near the Reservation; and of the 7persons that have left it for Glenwood in this Colony. Two years agothree families left the Reservation to settle at Lewisport, and havenot returned.
3. The Reservation, it appears, was laid off for the Micmacs about1872, by Mr. Murray, Geological Surveyor of the Colony. It contained24 blocks of about 30 acres each, with a water frontage of 10 chains.From the copy of the plan of the Reservation enclosed herewith it willbe noticed that each parcel was to form the subject of a personalgrant to the individual whose name is on the allotment. The right thenconferred was in each case a "licence to occupy," of which I enclose[3]a copy in blank form. The licence, it will be observed, would, on thefulfilment of certain conditions, have been replaced by a grant infee, after five years. In few cases, if in any, have the terms of thelicence been complied with, and no grant in fee or other title hasbeen issued to any of the occupants on this Reservation.