Incorporation Petition
The 1873 petition, reproduced below, led to the incorporation of North Cowichan on the 14th of June, 1873 under the name of "The Corporation of the District of North Cowichan."
To His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor in Council:
The Petition
of the Undersigned Inhabitants of Cowichan North Sheweth:
That your Petitioners desire that the District in which they reside should be incorporated as a Municipality, under the provisions of "The Municipality Act, 1872," and "The Municipality Amendment Act, 1873" :: That your Petitioners represent at least two-thirds of the male freeholders, householders, free miners (if any), pre-emptors, and lease-holders for a term of not less than two years, of the full age of twenty-one years, resident at Cowichan North and Chemainus :: That the total number of residents entitled to petition for the said purpose is seventy. Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that the District of Cowichan North and Chemainus may be incorporated as a Municipality under the said Acts :: That the name of the Municipality may be "The Corporation of the District of North Cowichan" :: That the limits and extent of the Municipality may include "All that tract of land comprised in that part of Cowichan set apart for school purposes under the name and title of Cowichan North School District, together with the surveyed district of Chemainus."
And your Petitioners will ever pray.
Wm. Smithe
Wm. Beaumont
Hugh Drummond
Lewis Lewis
Francis Creegan
Edward Allard
Narsis Allard
John Evans (by request)
Joseph Williams
Wm. Robertson
James Evans
W. C. Duncan
Thos. King
Ambrose Wm. Skinner
Neil Bell
Wm. M. Davie
S. Horace Davie
A. R. Kier
Joseph Drinkwater
Thos. Jas. Skinner
Ernest M. Skinner
John Flett
Henry Bonsall
F. Dencide
Thomas Windsor
Rhd. D. Symons
P. Rondeault
John Humphreys
Jno. Morley
Samual Bednall
James Kier
Thomas Mitchell
Adolophus Crate
James Flett
Wm. Drinkwater
William Dring
C. McEwing
James Miller
William Stonier
Robert M. Miller
John Hales
John French
Milton Edgson
James Leask
James J. Sollitt
Joseph Richards
Mickell J. Smith
William Chisholm
Henry Fry
James Charley
W. W. Thomas
Charles Jordan
Frederick Inwood
John C. Smith
Charles Hine
Jno Morley.
The actual residents in North Cowichan District is 70.
The Petition, which is not dated, was certified by the Honourable George A. Walkem, Attorney-General, to be in proper form, on the 14th of June, 1873, and the Municipality was incorporated on the 18th of June, A.D. 1873, under the name and style of "The Corporation of the District of North Cowichan."
