Newcastle approves Douglas's Estimates of the Revenue and Expenditure of British Columbia for the year 1861 but disallows the increase of the
Colonial Secretary's salary from £500 to £1,000, insisting that £800 must be sufficient.
No. 81
7 June 1861
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 12
of the 7th of February, transmitting the detailed Estimates of the
Revenue and Expenditure of British Columbia for the year 1861, and explaining the grounds on which provision has been made in them for certain
increased rates of salary to the principal Civil Officers of the Colony.
I have to convey to you my approval of these Estimates and also of
the general arrangements submitted by you in connection with the
salaries of the Civil Service of the Colony.
There is, however, one item to which my attention has been directed
and which I am unable to sanction, viz the allowance of two hundred
pounds per annum to the acting auditor: the salary allotted by my
Predecessor to the Colonial Secretary for the discharge of the combined
dutiesof of his Office and that of Auditor was five hundred pounds. These
duties he ought now to perform for the Colonial Secretary's increased
salary of eight hundred pounds, and Her Majesty's Government cannot
approve of assigning to him over and above the increase of his salary,
an acting allowance of two hundred pounds per annum as Auditor.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble servant, Newcastle