136 THEISLAND ACADIANS

unceasingly, by means of his newspaper, that Acadians be treated fairly in every area.

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY COLONIZATION

Land rental continued to be a problem on the Island until the end of the 1870s. Many Acadians remained tenants of absentee land- lords until the collapse of the land tenure system which began after some of the proprietors agreed to sell their lands. Subsequently the provincial government passed the Land Purchase Act in 1875 after the entry of the Island into Confederation. This law forced the last of the proprietors to sell their land to the Island government. The purchase was financed by a loan from the federal government obtained by virtue of a promise made to the people of the Island during negotiations prior to the creation of the province in 1873.

Before the land tenure system was ultimately abolished, however, the Island Acadians found themselves more and more crowded to- gether in overpopulated parishes and on farms that were too small. Some landlords or their agents were not anxious to rent out new land to them'®’. Consequently, the younger generation did not know where to settle.

We have already examined Father George-Antoine Belcourt’s role in Rustico concerning education. His influence in the area of agricul- ture was equally important. When he arrived in 1859, he saw the extent of the problem of his 2,245 parishioners, almost all of whom were farmers and fishermen and who were confined to a territory that was far too small. “The entire community has developed so that half the population is on twenty-five acres of land, three-quarters of the other half live on fifty acres, and the remainder occupy one hundred acres” (TR), he wrote'**. He immediately drew up plans to solve this enormous problem.

First of all, Father Belcourt advocated creating a people’s bank, a type of credit union. This financial institution would enable Acadians who stayed in the area to keep up the properties they were living on and to buy new land. Next, he started an important wave of emigration