Lugard to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)
27 January 1864
Sir
I have laid before the Secretary of State for War your letter of the 15 Instant with its enclosures from the Governor of British Columbia relative to an application from Serjeant McColl of the Royal EngineersManuscript image for the remission of the whole or part of the Sum (£105) charged for the conveyance of his wife and children from this country to that Colony.
In reply I am to request that you will remind the Duke of Newcastle that when the detachment of Royal Engineers first proceeded to the Colony in 1858, accomManuscript imagemodation was, at the instance of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, provided in the Transport for 35 women with their children, being considerably in excess of the regulated number. It may be true, as urged by Serjeant McColl, that had it not been [for] the state of his wife's health at the time, she would have accompaniedManuscript image him. But this in itself affords no sufficient ground for a compliance with the present request; for had Mrs McColl and her children been taken out free, it could only have been to the exclusion of the family of some other man.
It appears however that the expenses of the passage of Mrs McColl and her childrenManuscript image and the two other women who accompanied them were paid over to the Emigration Commissioners, by whom the service was conducted, by the Paymaster General acting, not on behalf of this department, but on behalf of the Treasury.
The remission of the balance of the debt due by Serjeant McColl is therefore rather aManuscript image matter for the consideration of the Duke of Newcastle in concert with the Lords Commissoners of the Treasury.
I have the honor to be
Sir Your obedt Servant
Edward Lugard
Minutes by CO staff
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Mr Elliot
I reserve this for you as you have minuted the other papers relating to this case.
ABd 28 Jany
I think that we may send the Treasury a copy of the Governor's despatch No 64. We may give them an outline of the case and state the circumstances which make in favor of Serjeant McColl, very muchManuscript image founded on the model of our letter to the War Office.
I should then say that the passage of Mrs McColl and her children was defrayed out of the money transferred to the Emigration Commrs by the Paymaster General (specifying the Treasury letter at the time) and adverting to Serjeant McColl's good character and to the fact that it was by misfortune and not by any fault of his own that he was deprived &c. I should submit to their Lordships that as he has now ceased to be in the receipt of pay and has already repaid one half of the cost of the passage of his wife and family, it may be a reasonable indulgence to remit to him the remainder of the debt which must fall heavily on a man in humble circumstances who ceased to derive any income from public sources.
TFE 20 Jany
Other documents included in the file
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Elliot to G.A. Hamilton, Treasury, 2 February 1864, forwarding correspondence on the subject and supporting McColl's application for remission of the whole or part of the cost of passage for his wife and children.