Vancouver Island History

Summer of 1858: Senior Colony legislators address the goldrush disruptions:

Attach Frazer’s River to Vancouver’s Island

In the summer of 1858, members of Vancouver Island’s House of Assembly were troubled. There were problems enough with American miners disrupting the town, but events on the mainland at the start of the goldrush were increasingly worrisome. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s expanding authority, and the effects of its exclusive navigation and trading rights on Frazer’s River, were also cause for concern.

Hot-headed James Yates, member for Victoria, “gave notice that … the House go into committee to consider … petitioning the Home Government to attach Frazer’s River and the surrounding country to Vancouver’s Island, and to remove same from the dominion of the Hudson’s Bay Company.”

Toning down the belligerence of the Yates proposal, the House politely requested a conference with the Governor “solely with the intention of promoting the interest of this Colony.” Governor Douglas invited members to meet with him at Government House on June 18 and promised that “any information he possessed would be cordially given.”

Questions were asked about his authority for “having … undertaken the government of Fraser’s River…” and continuing the Company’s exclusive trading rights throughout the whole gold rush country. The Members were of the opinion that Douglas had more or less taken control of the river, including the responsibility for supplying “the large number of persons that would be at the mines within a short time.”

The Governor assured them that as representative of the Crown he had “stepped in to preserve law and order as in duty bound,” and that the future Government of Frazer’s River “… was a matter at present under negotiation.” Five months later everyone knew the result of those negotiations when a separate mainland colony called British Columbia was proclaimed on November 10.

A note that “Mr. Yates’ motion relating to a petition to the Home Government to attach Fraser’s River to this colony falls to the ground” was entered in the minutes of the Assembly for June 25.

About James Yates

James Yates was one of seven members elected to the first legislative assembly of Vancouver Island. Fellow MLA Dr. John Helmcken remembered him as “radical, growler, cantankerous yet earnest, who hated the Governor and the Hudson’s Bay Company, although he had come out in their service.” In June, 1851, Yates bought two waterfront lots north of the Fort and soon disengaged himself from the Company, to the mutual satisfaction of both parties.

He built the first saloon in the colony at what is now the corner of Wharf and Yates streets. The first Ship Inn became a meeting place for the ‘grumblers and malcontents’ of the Colony, whose leaders included Fort Chaplain Robert Staines, Captain Langford of the HBC’s Colwood Farm, and former HBC ship captain James Cooper as well as Yates.

They formed an unofficial anti-establishment political group, complaining about how the colony was managed and preparing petitions to the Home Government. In general, their concerns centered on the HBC’s unpopular management of their leased Colony, and on Governor Douglas’s habit of appointing family members, such as his brother-in-law, Chief Justice David Cameron, to top Colonial offices.

The new MLAs tackled the question of funds that would be at the disposal of the House. Douglas explained they would have direct control only over “revenue raised from the tax on licensed houses,” but that all proceeds from the duties on licensed houses “had been expended previous to the creation of this House.” Ironically, a fair share of this fund came from licence fees for the Ship Inn. Total revenue in 1853 when the fee was first collected came from two payments, Yates’s £120 retail license and £100 from the HBC’s own wholesale licence. Yates’s establishment continued to contribute to the expenses of the colony as did several more colonial licensees, and provincial liquor taxes to this day.

Other orders of the day included provision of secure postal arrangements; road improvements, including a petition from Mr. J. Yates for improvements to “the dangerous descents to bridges, the roads being very steep and unprotected,” and requests for proceeds of land sales to finance these improvements. School repairs, royalties on coal, a bill to enfranchise the Town of Victoria, and a bill for the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages were subjects discussed throughout the four-year life of the first Assembly.

James Yates returned to Scotland early in 1861 after building his second tavern, a brick and stone edifice with thoroughly modern (for 1860) iron pillars which still rise over the sidewalk at 1218 Wharf Street.

His elder son, James Stuart Yates, law graduate of Edinburgh University born in Victoria in 1857, followed in his father’s footsteps for a brief time in the legislature. He spent three months in the notoriously unpopular British Columbia government of Premier Joseph Martin who apparently had difficulty filling cabinet posts in the spring of 1900. The Premier is said to have seen Yates strolling down the street, thought “there’s a man with nothing to do,” and invited him in with an offer. Records show he appointed the unelected lawyer as Provincial Secretary, Minister of Lands and Works and Minister of Education between February 28 and June 19, 1900. (During his 62-year law career from 1883 to 1945, James Stuart Yates was elected a Victoria City alderman and served on the boards of many Victoria organizations. He was called The Father of the B.C. Bar in newspaper articles before his death in 1950.)

By Maureen Duffus, excerpts from an article originally written for
Orders of the Day, The Publication of the Association of Former MLAs of British Columbia.

Read more about the James Yates family and Vancouver Island's first legislature

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