Colonial Despatches

With reference to my despatch No 7 of the 26th Ultimo I have now the honor to forward to your Grace herewith the detailed Estimates of the Revenue and Expenditureof of the Colony of British Columbia for the year 1861, prepared in as complete and formal a manner as the present infant state of the Colony will admit.

2. My despatch above alluded to contains most of the explanatory remarks pertinent to these Estimates, and it is therefore unnecessary for me to encumber this despatch with a repetition, but there is one point inparticular particular which I will now take the liberty of bringing to your Grace's attention.

3. In previous correspondence I have asked your Grace for a reconsideration of the Salaries fixed by Her Majesty's Government for the principal Officers of this Government, and your Grace although at that time unable to sanction any increase, has kindly held out the hope that when I was able tofurnish furnish more definite information as to the Revenue of the Colony, the subject would again be taken up. The information I have conveyed in my despatch of the 26th January will exhibit to your Grace the very satisfactory condition in which the Revenue of the Colony at present stands, and will shew that not only has the Colony not applied one sixpence of Imperial Funds towards liquidatingthe the Civil expenditure within the Colony, but that she has, in addition to defraying from the first every farthing of such expenditure, been enabled in 1860 to apply the sum of Thirty six thousand pounds (£36,000) towards public works indispensable to her progress and development; and thus to make an investment which has undoubtedly proportionately increased her Revenue,and and materially promoted her advancement and stability.

4. The character of the Colony as a gold producing Country is now so far established that there is but little fear of any decrease in the present population; on the contrary the population would seem to be steadily increasing just in proportion as we can open up roads, and, reducingthereby thereby the cost of provisions, make the less profitable diggings remunerative, and day by day is the work of advancement slowly but no less surely progressing.

5. I think therefore that your Grace need be under no apprehension of the Mother Country being called upon to defray any part of the Civil Expenditure of the Colony, and that the time has come whenI I may confidently ask that the salaries which I have inserted in the Estimates for the superior Civil Officers may be confirmed.

6. The entire Civil Expenditure of the Colony may perhaps appear large to your Grace, but your Grace is well aware of the vast extent of Territory included within the Colony, and of the necessity, for the preservation of law and order, and for the interests of the Revenue,to to establish a Government Agent at every spot where the miners may congregate and form a settlement; and to prove not only the expediency but the correctness of this policy, I would merely advert to the remarkable tranquillity, and almost total absence of crime within the Colony, and I would further observe that these outstations are not only in nearly every case self supporting, but in somecases cases add a considerable amount to the general Revenue. The salaries of some of the Magistrates at the distant outstations may appear large in comparison with the salaries asked for the principal Officers of the Government, but in both cases I would assure your Grace that no more has been inserted than is sufficient to procure a bare subsistence, and that thesalaries salaries now placed on the Estimates for the superior Civil Officers are not at all commensurate to their position, nor approximate to the salaries paid by the Mercantile Community; for I am informed on good authority that the Actuary of the Bank established here, whose labours are insignificant as compared with those of the Treasurer, received a salary of£2000 £2000 per annum, while his two Clerks receive the salaries of £800 and £600 respectively, and that from £400 to £600 per annum is the usual sum paid by Heads of Firms to their Clerks and Assistants. Compare this with the present salaries of the Colonial Secretary, Treasurer, and Collector of Customs, Gentlemen of position, education,and and ability, who by their very position and education are incapable of availing themselves of those advantages which their ability would secure to them.

7. I trust your Grace will not think I am unduly pressing this matter upon your attention, but I know many of the officers cannot live upon their salaries, unless indeed, as some are obliged to do, they havecourse recourse to the expedient of taking their meals at a Restaurant and sleeping in their Office. I have merely related these few facts for your Grace's information, for I feel satisfied it would be your desire as soon as the Colony can afford it to relieve the Officers of the Government from this embarrassing position.

8. With reference to the sum inserted in theEstimates Estimates to be expended under the head of "Roads, Streets and Bridges", I trust I may in this early stage of the Colony be permitted to depart from customary rule, and be left free to expend upon the important public work of extending the communications of the country—all the Revenue that may become disposable.

9. The accounts of the Colony for 1860 are in an almost complete state,only only requiring certain distant district accounts to render them perfect, and they will I hope be forwarded to England within the prescribed period. The accounts for 1859 are also nearly complete but they have been delayed until now, in consequence of the difficulties attendant upon their entire reconstruction, and the references that were necessary in connectionwith with the Military Expenditure, and other expenditures during the early stage of the Colony, and before a regularly organized system was established.

10. As bearing upon the subject of this despatch I take the opportunity of enclosing a Return of all the Appointments made by me to Offices in British Columbia up to the 31stDecember December 1860.