1916, c. 24

[Assented to May 18, 1916]

An Act relating to the St. Peter’s Indian Reserve

WHEREAS an information on behalf of His Majesty was exhibited in the Exchequer Court of Canada on the seventeenth day of October, 1914, claiming among other things a declaration of the court that a release or surrender of the St. Peter’s Indian Reserve, situate in the county of Selkirk in the province of Manitoba, made on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1907, was invalid and void, and that all patents heretofore issued for lands included in the said Reserve and certain alleged sales of land in the said Reserve might be declared void and of no effect; and whereas His Majesty has since consented to confirm and make good certain of the patents and, subject to the terms and conditions hereinafter set out, certain of the sales made: Therefore His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:—

1. This Act may be cited as The St. Peter’s Reserve Act.

2. The patents of lands included in the said St. Peter’s Reserve issued by His Majesty and the sales of such lands made on behalf of His Majesty in the said Reserve are hereby confirmed and made good,—

(a) in cases where such lands were unsold and were held by the Indian patentees on the first day of June, 1915; and

(b) in cases where the additional sum of one dollar for each acre of such lands included in such patent or sale, together with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from the first day of June, 1915, until payment, has been or is paid to His Majesty; and

(c) in cases where the owner gives His Majesty a lien creating a first charge upon the lands, subject only to taxes, for the sum of one dollar for each acre of such lands included in such patent or sale, payable in five equal annual instalments with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from the first day of June, 1915, the first of such instalments and interest to be due and payable on the first day of June, 1916, such lien to be effected by an endorsement of the lien or a caveat respecting same on the Certificate of Title issued to the owner by the District Registrar of the proper Land Titles Office: Provided that such lien may be paid in full at any time during the said five years with interest as aforesaid to the date of payment.

The Certificate of the Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs certifying that a lien has been paid and satisfied shall be a valid discharge of such lien.

3. This Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the first day of June, A.D., 1915.