No. 72, Military
23 November 1861
Money being required for payment of the Colonial pay &ca of the Royal Engineers, I have the honor to acquaint Your Grace that I have authorized the Treasurer to obtain, when circumstances will permit, the Sum of Three Thousand pounds in the usual manner byBillsManuscript image Bills upon Her Majesty's Paymaster General, and I trust Your Grace will cause the necessary authority to be issued for the acceptance of the Bills, drawn on this Account, upon their presentation.
2. The sum of Six Thousand pounds is all that has been as yet drawn this year. The Parliamentary Vote for British Columbia ending 31 March 1862 is Eleven Thousand pounds for "Colonial Pay of Royal Engineers," exclusive of the Salary of the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works (in command of Royal Engineers). Therefore if theCoinManuscript image Coin sent out by the "Tartar," be not considered in the Parliamentary grant, there is still a sum of Two Thousand pounds available before the 31st March 1862, and this sum will, I believe, just meet our requirements on account of Colonial Pay &ca of the Royal Engineers to that date. I therefore trust that the Coin sent out by the "Tartar", and which was issued from the Treasury in October 1860, may be treated as irrespective of the aid granted by Parliament for 1861-62, for as I have before explainedtoManuscript image to Your Grace the remote and almost inaccessible part of the Country in which the recent rich gold fields have been opened demand immediate heavy expenditure in improving the communications &ca and so numerous and so pressing are the calls made upon me, that, although not able to meet a tithe of them, I am, nevertheless, just now more straitened for means than at almost any other period since the creation of the Colony.
I have the honor to be
My Lord Duke
Your Graces most obedient humble Servant
James Douglas
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
Mr Elliot
This is for the Treasury, but paragraph 2 of the Governor's desph seems to require the expression of some opinion on the part of the S. of State.
ABd 3 Feb
The Governor's application is quite unanswerable. Parlt voted a certain sum for the service of B. Columbia: the fact that part of it has been sent out in Coin cannot afford the most remote reason why it should be treated as a present in addition to the vote. Inform the T-y that we cannot support the Governor's application?
TFE 3 Feby
N 4
Other documents included in the file
Manuscript image
Draft, Elliot to G.A. Hamilton, Treasury, 10 February 1862, forwarding copy of the despatch and stating Newcastle did not feel the coin sent out to the colony should be treated as a gift in addition to the vote.
Manuscript image
Draft reply, Newcastle to Douglas, No. 103, 22 February 1862, reminding him that the letter from the Board of Treasury…transmitted to you for your guidance…expressly stated that the value of the coins …would be paid from the Parliamentary Grant.
People in this document

Blackwood, Arthur Johnstone

Douglas, James

Elliot, Thomas Frederick

Hamilton, George Alexander

Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham Fiennes

Organizations in this document

Treasury

Vessels in this document

HMS Tartar

Places in this document

British Columbia