Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to report for the information of His Grace the Secretary of State that, in pursuance of my last letter to You on the subject of my salary as Colonial Treasurer of Vancouver Island, I presented to the Crown Agents my draft for £100, that sum being the difference, undrawn, betwixt my full pay, or the salary appertaing to my office, and the rate of £400 per annum for the six months ended the 31st October last and that the draft was returned unpaid, answer, "no advice to accept at present." Annexed to my draft was Governor Seymour's despatch dated the 30th March 1867, that being the document upon which my claim is basedand and not the "Certificate of Leave" which was handed to me in London and which I cannot regard as an authentic document for the following reason. At the suggestion of Mr A.N. Birch, in order to save him trouble, I drew up in accordance with the Colonial Regulations and submitted for the Governor's Signature the usual form of "Certificate" required to be furnished to Officers leaving a Colony which document purported to authorize me to draw full pay for six months as Colonial Treasurer of Vancouver Island in terms of the Governor's despatch already referred to. The Colonial Secretary and the Private Secretary both assured me that the said document would be signed and duly forwarded to me before my departure and upon the faith of these assurances I actually embarked, with my family, for England. The Certificate, however, was not forthcoming until my arrival at the Colonial Office in London when it appeared that the words "Four Hundred Pounds"had had been inserted after the words "full pay" without my concurrence. I have no evidence that His Excellency was aware of the alteration having been made and his original offer to me thereby impaired to the extent of £200 per annum. But Mr Birch was certainly aware that such an alteration in the Governor's words "full pay" was contrary to my expectations and not what I understood at the time when His Excellency made me the offer.

Having left the question of compensation for loss of office entirely in the hands of Her Majesty's Government I was willing to submit to the temporary inconvenience arising out of the loss of "full pay" for six months but as nearly a year has already elapsed since the abolition of my office without my having received any satisfactory communication from the Government on the subject, I have only to add—and I trust that you will submit the circumstances to His Grace at your early convenience—that the balance of pay due to me by the Colonial Government is now necessary to enable me to availmyself myself of other employment which I have accepted and that the withholding of said balance of salary can only have the effect, in my humble judgment, of increasing the embarrassment of the Colonial Authorities in dealing with my claim for compensation for the loss of a Crown Appointment from no fault of mine.