VII.

The Shubenacadie Canal Company of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Company is incorporated, under an Act of the Provincial Legislature, by a charter dated the 1st of June, 1826, granted by His Excellency Sir James Kempt, then lieutenantgovernor, and confirmed by a subsequent statute. The responsibility of subscribers is, expressly and in the strongest terms, limited to the amount of their shares.

The management is in the board of directors at Halifax. By-laws, passed at a general meeting, and approved by the lieutenant-governor and his majesty's council, regulate the proceedings and choice of Officers. Absent shareholders vote by proxy.

The canal-works commenced in July, 1826, and have been successfully prosecuted under the direction of an able engineer from England. The navigation is constructed for sea-going vessels drawing eight feet of water; passing through the centre of the province from Halifax Harbour to the Basin of Mines—an extent of from fifty-four to sixty miles. There are fifteen locks, each eighty-seven feet long and twenty-two feet six inches wide. The space of twentyfour miles, including five locks, will be complete and open for vessels in October next: the remainder in 1831.-By boats, the whole distance from the Basin of Mines to within half a mile of the harbour will be navigable this autumn.

To aid the Company the Legislature in 1826 granted a donation of £15,000; and further in 1829, as an inducement to future subscribers, by an act of the General Assembly, appropriated an annuity of £1,500 currency, for ten years from the 1st of January, 1830, to guarantee an interest upon the new subscriptions.

These will be preference shares, that is to say, shares entitled to five per cent. interest in preference to subscribers at Halifax. For these a subscription is now opened under the following terms, viz.:

The sum subscribed (each share being £22 10s. sterling) to be paid in London to the bankers of the Company, in four equal payments; one on the 1st of September next, and the others successively on the 1st of May and October, 1830, and the 1st of May, 1831.

The shares to be transferred in London or Halifax. The certificates to be delivered at the

first payment.

Each subscriber in England to receive an interest of five per cent. on his investment. For this purpose the Company expressly guarantees to them, for ever, a yearly dividend of five per cent. on every share; to be paid in London.

Towards this interest (amounting yearly to £1,890 sterling) the Company will remit to London the provincial annuity of £1,500 currency for ten years, above mentioned: declaring that it shall only be applied to this purpose. The balance, with all charges, will be provided by the Company.

This interest on the preference shares, or the balance of it, remaining after the application of the £1,500 thereto, will be first paid out of the nett canal revenue. An equal dividend will then be made from the surplus to the subscribers at Halifax. Any income which may arise above five per cent. will be apportioned upon all the shares.

London, 24th of July, 1829.

272

VIII.

Table showing the Variation and Dip of the Magnetic Needle at varions geographical points in North America, compiled from the Journal of Captain Sir John Franklin, R. N. and other authorities therein named.

Table showing the Variation and Dip of the Magnetic Needle, &c. continued.

IX.

Regulations for granting Lands in the British North American Provinces.

For the information of persons desirous of proceeding as settlers to His Majesty's Provinces in North America, the following summary of the rules which have been established for the future regulation of grants of lands has been prepared by the direction of Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Department.

The commissioner of crown lands will, from time to time, and at least once in every year, submit to the governor a report of the total quantity of each district of crown property, so far as he may then have ascertained the same, together with his opinion of each description of property which it may be expedient to offer for sale within the then ensuing year, and the upset price per acre at which he would recommend the several descriptions of property to be offered, provided that the land proposed to be offered for sale does not contain any considerable quantity of timber fit for His Majesty's navy, or for any other purposes, it being the intention that no grant of the land upon which such timber may be growing should be made until the timber is cleared.

If the governor should be pleased to sanction the sale of the whole or any part of the land recommended to be sold at the upset price proposed, or at any other price which he may name, the commissioner of crown lands will proceed to the sale in the following manner:

He will give public notice in the Gazette, and in such other newspaper as may be circulating in the province, as well as in any other manner that circumstances will admit of, of the time and place appointed for the sale of the lands in each district, and of the upset price at which the lots are proposed to be offered, that the lots will be sold to the highest bidder, and if no offer should be made at the upset price, that the lands will be reserved for future sale in a similar manner by auction.

That no lot should contain more than 1200 estimated acres.

The purchase-money will be required to be paid by four instalments, without interest; the first instalment at the time of the sale, and the second, third, and fourth instalment at intervals of a year.

If the instalments are not regularly paid, the deposit-money will be forfeited and the land again referred to sale.

Purchasers of land at any sale not exceeding two hundred acres, being unable to advance the purchase-money by instalments, as proposed, the commissioner may permit the purchaser to occupy the same upon a quit-rent, equal to five per cent. upon the amount of the purchasemoney, one year's quit-rent to be paid at the time of sale, in advance, and to be paid annually in advance afterwards; upon the failure of the regular payment the lands to be again referred to auction and sold. The quit-rent upon lands so purchased in this manner to be subject to redemption upon payment of twenty years' purchase, and parties to be permitted to redeem the