No. 15
14 March 1863
Sir,
With reference to your despatch No. 53 of the 18th of November last transmitting a list of articles required by the Assay Department I have the honour to acquaint you that I have authorized the Agents General for Crown Colonies to procure these articles and to forward them to British Columbia by an early opportunity.
TheManuscript image
The prime cost of these articles will be £289.10.5 viz £222.16.0 for those obtained from Messrs Johnson, Matthey and Co and £66.14.5 for those supplied by Mr. Claudet.
Although I have taken upon myself to sanction this course I must take the opportunity of strongly calling your attention to the large amount in which the Colony of British Columbia has become indebted to the Colonial Agents General.
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I enclose a statement whichManuscript image I deemed it necessary to demand from the Agents of their account with the Colony and I have to instruct you forthwith to remit the sum of £776.5.5 in which the Colony is already indebted to them with an additional amount of about £200 to meet current or future orders.
I must insist on prompt attention to this requisition as I cannot permit theColonialManuscript image Colonial Agents General to have to draw upon the funds of other Colonies in order to perform the services of British Columbia or of any other Colony which does not provide money for its own wants, and I must warn you that unless the good faith of your government is kept by discharging without delay the debt incurred for complying with its requisitions, I shall be compelled to refuse to allowthe 1 the Agents General to comply with any further RequisitionsManuscript image however urgent may be the services for which they are made.
I have etc.
Newcastle
Footnotes
  1. From here the original document images are missing and we have linked the transcription to the letterbook copy. Images from the two versions overlap slightly to capture the entire document.
People in this document

Claudet, F. G.

Douglas, James

Johnson, Percival Norton

Matthey, George

Pelham-Clinton, Henry Pelham Fiennes

Places in this document

British Columbia