SHAP. 11] CONTROL OVER INTERNAL AFFAIRS 1051
It is, of course, easy to censure the Governments which
determined to leave these vast areas of land to the free
disposal of the young community ; the lands were not the
things to give away, in the opinion of Lord Durham, and it
may be said that to grant them absolutely to small com-
munities was merely to discourage expansion by settlement
and immigration, for those communities were not specially
anxious to spend the revenue accruing from the lands in the
effort to secure larger populations, which would interfere in
some degree with rates of wages and the prospects of those
in the country. Moreover, Canada has not adopted the
British ideas in dealing with the land in the new provinces ;
Manitoba received no public lands when it was created, and
if a more generous arrangement was made in 1885? it was
merely to transfer a portion of the lands, those known as
swamp lands, to the jurisdiction of the province; Alberta
and Saskatchewan received no lands, and the Dominion
thus has had the responsibility of settling the North-West.
It has been argued often of late 2 that the system has
been improvident, that lands should have been retained in
the ownership of the Imperial Government and used by
that Government for the settlement of the indigent popu-
lation of the British Islands. It is also pointed out that
though Canada has now adopted a vigorous policy of en-
couraging immigration, still it offers very good terms not
merely to British settlers but also to settlers from the United
States, and that it builds up Canada with a population
which is in large measure alien, even if it becomes Canadian
by naturalization, and that it tends to weaken the British
connexion in Canada. In the case of Australia stress is laid
on the fact that the Governments there do so little for
immigration, that before the proceeds and control of the
' See Canada Act 48 & 49 Vict. ¢. 50; Manitoba Act 49 Vict. c. 38;
Attorney-General for Manitoba v. Attorney-General for Canada, 34 8. C. R.
287; [1904] A. C. 799; cf. Canada Gazette, xliv. 3210-2: Manitoba Free
Press, March 24, 1911.
* The older discussions in Earl Grey, Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's
Administration, and in Adderley’s Colonial Policy, are of value.
