Colonial Despatches
The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Despatch to London
Seymour, Frederick to
Grenville, Richard 20 September 1867, CO 60:29, no. 10831, 148.
Abstract
Despatch to London.
Minutes (4), Enclosures (untranscribed) (3), Other documents (1), Marginalia (1).
Seymour forwards papers showing “some of the dissatisfaction which exists in the Colony as
to the present position of the Judges” and responds to Buckingham’s suggestion that “the remedy can best be supplied by the action of the Local Legislature.”
Holland’s minute summarizes the forwarded papers, which ask for a “Court of Appeal,” refute
the validity of Needham’s court, and disagree with Buckingham’s proposed solution, and recommends waiting for the law officers’s report. Blake’s minute suggests Seymour’s despatch only needs to be acknowledged.
No. 121
Victoria
20th September 1867
My Lord Duke,
I have the honor to forward the papers noted in the margin
Enclosure No. 1 Mr D.B. Ring to Governor Seymour, 10 July 1867.
Enclosure No. 2 Mr Etheridge to the Colonial Secretary, 17th June 1867, with the Attorney General's Report.
which shew some of the dissatisfaction which exists in the Colonyas
as to the present position of the Judges.
Enclosure No. 1 Mr D.B. Ring to Governor Seymour, 10 July 1867.
Enclosure No. 2 Mr Etheridge to the Colonial Secretary, 17th June 1867, with the Attorney General's Report.
as to the present position of the Judges.
2. Your Grace has stated that the remedy can best be supplied
by the action of the Local Legislature, but you will have observed
from the enclosures to my despatch No. 86 of 10th July that Mr
Needham repudiates entirely the Authority of the Legislative Council
over the Court in which he continues to preside.
3. I shall venture toaddress
address your Grace further on this subject.
address your Grace further on this subject.
Minutes by CO staff
Sir F. Rogers
The Governor encloses 2 letters, one from a barrister & one from a Commissr of the Hudson's Bay Compy, in which the Govr is requested to take steps to create a Court of Appeal.
The Governor encloses 2 letters, one from a barrister & one from a Commissr of the Hudson's Bay Compy, in which the Govr is requested to take steps to create a Court of Appeal.
He also encloses a letter of the Attorney General in which that
officer disputes the validity of Mr Needham's Court, & sharply
remonstrates against the plan which was proposed by H Grace with
a view of getting over the present difficulties & which is now
before the Law Officers.
No answer can be returned, I apprehend,
until the Law officers have reported. Till then we are not in a
position to decide whether a Court of Appeal would be desirable
(though I can hardly doubt but that it would be) or how it should
be constituted.
HTH
5/11
Documents enclosed with the main document (not transcribed)
J.H. Etheridge, Commissioner, Hudson's Bay Company, to Colonial
Secretary, 17 June 1867, expressing dissatisfaction with the
administration of justice in the colony, with reference to a case
previously before the courts.
H.P.P. Crease, Attorney General, 2 July 1867, reporting on a case,
Pidwell versus Hudson's Bay Company, with regard to Needham's position as
judge and construction of the court with reference to the act of union.
Other documents included in the file
Draft reply, Buckingham to Seymour, No. 15, 26 February 1868 referring Seymour to an earlier despatch, which forwarded “a Draft of an Ordinance for regulating the
Supreme Courts of Justice of British Columbia."