PRE-EMPTION REGULATIONS
Any person being the head of a family, a widow, or a single man over the age of eighteen and being a British subject, may, for agricultural purposes, record any tract of unoccupied and unreserved Crown lands, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in extent. No person can hold more than one pre-emption claim. The pre-emption had to be staked by the claimer.  The claimer had to have personal residence on the land within sixty days after registration. Land may be considered abandoned if unoccupied for more than two months consecutively. The settler shall have the land surveyed within five years from the date of record.  After living on the land for two years and improving the value of the land by two dollars and fifty cents an acre the land could be purchased from the government. Cost of the land purchase was one dollar per acre. The payment for this land could be spread over four years From B.C. Settlers Guide 1885