tune, near Souris, in Kings County. Bittermann says that Vere was in the forefront of the Escheat movement from about 1830 onward. Rather than a loose association of like-minded individuals, it turns out the Escheat supporters were very well organized. They had local committees throughout all three counties, under the direction of a central committee. Bittermann says Vere served a term as the corres- ponding secretary of the central committee and was active in other ways.

In November, 1837, two thousand Islanders gathered in George- town to voice their opposition to the land system in what to then was the largest rally ever held in PEI. Vere is named among the leaders who placed resolutions in front of the crowd. And Bittermann says he was part of the committee that drew up the new land settlement policies that emerged from the Georgetown rally. During the 1830s Vere also wrote articles that were circulated among the settlers in support of Escheat. Some of these articles written by Vere and other movement leaders were combined in pamphlets and distributed in the late 1830s.

All of this shows us that Vere was better educated than most rural Islanders at that time and had the ability to express his arguments in writing.

It was not much wonder that the group resorted to printing their own pamphlets. Communication was almost non-existent at that time. Bittermann quotes one Islander as saying newspapers “were al- most worn out with the handing from one to another”

Vere said in a letter to the editor of the Royal Gazette in May, 1832, that transportation problems and a lack of money made it difficult for those in the Murray Harbour area to see a paper regularly. How- ever, he added, whenever escheat was raised in the house those going to Charlottetown made it a point to return with many copies of the latest issue.

“When a neighbour was expected back from Charlottetown,” Vere wrote, “he is hardly allowed to refresh himself before his house is crowded.” He said he himself made a point of collecting every paper containing the proceedings of the House that year, but he regretted