Colonial Despatches

With reference to former correspondence on the subject, and more especially to my despatch No. 103 of the 22nd of February 1862, I have the honor to inform you that I have received a letter from the Treasury, stating that their Lordships have paid to the Account of the Master of the Mint at the Bank of England the sum of £6,900 in repayment of the value ofspecie specie supplied in 1860 to the Colonial Government of British Columbia.

I have therefore to give you positive instructions that you must forthwith discharge this debt to the Treasury. The simplest course would have been that you should pay the amount into the Treasury Chest, if there had been one in British Columbia as is the case in many Colonies. In the absence of a Chest you can only settle the matter by one of two methods: either by issuingout out of the Colonial Revenue to the Royal Engineers as much as £6,900 of the amount voted by Parliament for their pay this year, and by curtailing to that extent your drafts on the Treasury or else by a direct remittance to England. I have no objection to your adopting the former course if you can make the payments to the Royal Engineers from Colonial funds with perfect punctuality, but in case of the least difficulty on that point, it would benecessary necessary for you to draw Bills on the Treasury so far as is warranted by the Parliamentary Vote, since the Royal Engineers evidently are the first claimants on the sum intended for them by Parliament. In this event however you must take the first opportunity of remitting the sum of £6900 to England.

I cannot too strongly impress upon you the necessity of your prompt obedience to these instructions, and the impossibility of permitting any Governor to appropriate to theservice service of his Government Imperial funds which he has no authority to make use of.