Hill to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary)
General Post Office
1 January 1868
Sir,
Having laid before the Postmaster General your letter of the 20th ultimo, I am directed by His Grace to transmit to you, for the information of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, a copy of the reply which was received from the Postmaster General of the United States to the letter written fromthisManuscript image this Office on the 18th of June last enquiring whether arrangements could be made for conveying mails to and from British Columbia by means of the United States mail steamers which sail from San Francisco.
From this reply it will be seen that the only steamship service in operation north of San Francisco is that to Portland, Oregon.
It is stated that a small vessel runs regularly betweenPortlandManuscript image Portland and Vancouvers Island, but of this the Governor of British Columbia must be well aware.
I am,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant
F. Hill
Minutes by CO staff
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Mr Elliot
This does not advance us at all. But Postal communication will be considered with the General Financial question.
CC 2/1
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TFE 2/1
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I must say that I think the P.O. might as well have given us this infn 4 months ago.
The statement contained in this letter of Mr Blackfan is directly at variance with that contained in Gov Seymour's dph No 135—par. 4, and I think it shd be sent out at once to Mr S. with the observation, that it appeared from this letter that, unless the arrangements explained in it had been altered, arrangements mt readily be made for a regular communication with England.
At the same time the course of communication is far from satisfactory for important Govt dphes.
FR 6/1
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Yes. But ascertain what is the distance Vancouver to Portland.
B&C 20/1
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The distance by sea is about 200 miles—but the Steamer that used to run has stopped. The present communication from Portland is by Steamer up the Columbia & Cowlitz Rivers to Monticello—thence 90 miles by Land to Olympia from whence there is a weekly Steamer to Victoria. The latter route takes about 3 days but nothing I am informed can be worse tha[n] the 90 miles of road.
CC 21/1
Documents enclosed with the main document (not transcribed)
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Joseph H. Blackfan, Chief Clerk to U.S. Postmaster General, to Postmaster General, London, 26 July 1867, discussing postal routes and charges on mail destined for British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
Other documents included in the file
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Draft reply, Buckingham to Seymour, no number, no date, informing Seymour of the correspondence between Britain’s postmaster general and the US’s postmaster general and that postal service may be established between British Columbia and Britain through Portland, Oregon.
Minutes by CO staff
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See answer to the D. of Buckingham's enquiry at the end of 54.
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Delay this until general question of mail communication B. Columbia & Northwest has been dealt with.
B&C 26/1