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"The Committee to whom the Petition of certain persons trespassers upon lands reserved for the Indians at Wagmatook in the County of Cape Breton, together with a variety of other papers connected with the subject, were referred, beg leave to Report.

That upon a careful examination of the statements made by the Petitioners and the report of the Surveyor General of Cape Breton, and other papers submitted to them, Your Committee are of opinion that the whole reserve originally made for the use and benefit of the Indians, as stated in a sketch thereof hereto annexed, should be faithfully continued and that not the smallest occasion should be given them to complain of being deceived in placing reliance upon the promises of Government. It does not indeed appear that the Government has performed any act by which its good faith to the Indians has been violated, but on the contrary it has promptly taken measures to prevent any injury being done to them by trespassers. It appears to be only necesscary to carry out the measures of Government to the contemplated extent to prevent the Indians from entertaining a Suspicion that any British subjects can trespass upon their reserves with impunity. The case is embarrassed with the circumstance that the persons who have trespassed upon these reserves are poor and ignorant people who have most probably taken up their position and made improvements on these reserves under an impression that they would be treated with as much [levity?] and forbearance as persons who have taken unauthorized possession of the Waste lands of the Crown in various parts of the Province. The trespassers upon the Indian reserves can hardly be supposed capable of accurately considering that the good faith of Government towards the Indians renders it impossible to extend the same kindness and tenderness to them as it might were the trespasses committed upon unreserved Crown lands. Your Committee are therefore disposed to view the case of these trespassers in the most favorable light in which it can be placed, and therefore recommend that the


Surveyor