No. 5.

1859.

[ No. 5. ]

REPORT of the Committee on State Affairs to whom was referred "A bill to provide for the Drainage and Reclamation of the Swamp Lands by a system of State Roads." The committee on State Affairs have had under consideration a bill to provide for the drainage and reclamation of the swamp lands by a system of State roads.

The act of Congress conferring this magnificent grant of lands upon the State, is accompanied with the imperative condition that the lands, or the proceeds thereof, so far as the same is necessary, shall be exclusively devoted to their drainage and reclamation. The grant, with the conditions annexed, was dictated by an enlightened policy on the part of Congress, as a great landed proprietor in the State and with a view of securing a more certain and speedy sale of the remaining portions of the public domain. The object sought to be accomplished by the creation of this important trust, can only be attained by the adoption, on the part of the State, of such a policy as will not only provide for a liberal system of drainage, but will at the same time, and as ultimately connected therewith, open a sys

tem of highways that will render these lands, and the country by which they are surrounded, accessible to the settler, and thus provide the only reliable means for their improvement. Notwithstanding the imperative conditions annexed to the terms of the grant in question, it is believed by your committee that it is within the province of the Legislature to judge as to the extent of the necessity for drainage, provided the system adopted shall be such as was plainly contemplated by Congress at the time of making the grant; ant that the effect of such system shall be to increase the value and availability of that portion of the public domain not included in the grant.

It is a well known and acknowledged fact that no other system of drainage, for a new country, is so effectual as the construction of public highways. These carry with them population and enterprise, which can be secured by no other means, and ensure to the country through which they pass, the cultivation, improvement and reclamation of its waste lands, and the repairs and maintenance of the road-ways which have first furnished the facilities for, and inducements to their settlement.

The immense and almost impenetrable forests in the Northern portions of our State, present an insurmountable barrier to the progress of population by the efforts of private individual enterprise. The distress which at this time exists in some of our northern counties, and for which you have so recently and promptly provided, has been to a very great extent produced by the almost inaccessible location of the suffering communities; and it is more than probable, that with good and convenient public highways, the people of those localities would have better sustained themselves with their own resources, than it is possible for them now to do, with the liberal aid of the public in the isolated position in which they are placed.

The first approaches towards a wise and liberal government have in all ages and countries been indicated by a

substantial provision for their public highways. No country which has steadily and persistently neglected such provision, will be found to have made any considerable advances towards a stable and enlightened civil policy.

With the decline of the arts and the strength and magnificence of its government, the public highways of Italy have become neglected, and in many instances destroyed.

On the island of Great Britain, the people of which have stamped the impress of their institutions upon every quarter of the globe, will be found a more perfect system of highways than any other country boast; and a careful reference to their history will pro to the intelligent reader that their advances to power and enlightened government have been closely followed by the substantial basis of the means of easy and rapid communication with every portion of their extended empire; and that Canada, the brightest colonial star in the imperial crown, is only held to its allegiance by the great public thoroughfares which the capital and enterprise of the mother country is at the present moment constructing within its territory.

It is undoubtedly true, that though the theory and constitution of our government are somewhat different from those of the countries referred to, still the same general policy which has secured the material prosperity and intellectual superiority of other nations, will prove of essential benefit to our own, if properly adapted to the circumstances by which we are surrounded, and that these lessons from the history of the past should not be neglected until some wiser and more certain plan for the development of 'he resources and hidden wealth in the unbroken forests of our State shall be proposed and adopted.

Guided by the general views thus briefly recited, the committee have directed their chairman to present for the consideration of the Senate, a bill to provide for the drainage and reclamation of the swamp lands, by a system of