on the occasion of the transmission of a petition from the House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, "praying for the aid of Her Majesty's Government in extinguishing the Indian title to the public lands in the Colony." The money then needed amounted to £3000, and Douglas proposed that it be advanced by the Imperial Government, payment to be made from the proceeds of sales of land. But the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, replied tersely that he was "fully sensible of the great importance of purchasing without loss of time the native title to the soil of Vancouver Island; but the acquisition of the title is a purely colonial interest, and the Legislature must not entertain any expectation that the British taxpayer will be burdened to supply the funds or British credit pledged for that purpose."[57] Whatever the reason, however, for denying recognition of title to the Indians both of the Island and of the Mainland, and for withholding compensation, there can be no doubt of the fact: "The title of the Indians in fee of the public lands, or any portion thereof," wrote an eminent colonial official, "has never been acknowledged by Government, but, on the contrary is distinctly denied."[58] The beginnings of a positive Indian policy in British Columbia may be traced in an early letter of Governor Douglas to Sir E. B. Lytton, March 14, 1859. This letter was in reply to one from the latter (Dec. 30, 1858), in which Lytton inquired whether a plan for settling the Indians in permanent villages, like the plan used by Sir George Grey with the Kaffirs in South Africa, might not be feasible.[59]