Paul M. Koroscil, "Soldiers, Settlement and Development in British Columbia, 1915-1930," BC Studies 54 (Summer 1982), pp. 63-87

Read in full, 12 Oct 2026. The study of the province's soldier settlement after the First World War, from the Sessional Papers and the Land Settlement Board's records.

• The laws: the Land Settlement and Development Act (1917) set up a Land Settlement Board "in the Department of Agriculture" (p. 66); the Soldiers' Land Act (1918) was run by a superintendent of soldier settlement under the Department of Lands (p. 70). On 2 July 1918 the board named the Bulkley and Nechako valleys the first settlement areas.
• Costs to 1920 (Table 3, p. 80, from the Sessional Papers of 1921): Merville, $69,699.91 to buy and $437,221.89 to develop, 13,660 acres, about 400 settlers; Camp Lister, $187,431.46 and $286,195.81, 5,936 acres, about 70. Fernie and Kelowna were dropped in 1920.
• Merville: the fire of 5 July 1922 "destroyed fifty houses and the majority of the farm buildings" (p. 81); a reappraisal found "one half of the Merville lands were worthless for cultivation"; "Many of the original settlers had sold their farms by 1929 and moved to the city" (p. 82).
• Camp Lister: prices halved in 1926; the $50,000 irrigation system was finished in the autumn of 1929 "but had arrived too late, as only twenty-one soldier settlers remained" (p. 85).
• Verdict: the board's "careless decisions contributed to the decline of soldier settlements" (p. 87): land bought after a visit, without a scientific survey; the Nechako chosen without markets. Koroscil does not name Duff Pattullo.

See Duff Pattullo, 22nd Premier of British Columbia: what did he get right, and what did he get wrong?.