Despatch from London.
Enclosures (untranscribed) (4).
Newcastle informs Douglas that he shared Douglas's earlier despatch concerning
ongoing negotiations between the government and the HBC regarding land in Victoria with the HBC.
Newcastle forwards the company's response, addresses a number of outstanding points of contention
between the two parties, and asks
Douglas to report on them.
No. 121
Downing Street
15 November 1862
Sir,
I have the honor to inform you that on the receipt of your
despatch No. 39 of the 30th of July, respecting the lands to be
surrendered to the Crown by the Hudson's Bay Company under the
Agreement of the 3rd of February 1862, I communicated that
document
document to the Company, in order to give them an opportunity of offering any
observations which they might wish to make on the subject.
I transmit to you for your information a copy of the answer which
has been received from the Governor of the Company.
In this letter Mr. Berens takes no notice of the error into which
you intimated your opinion that Mr. Dallas had led the Government of
this Country on the extent of land which the Crown would recover
by by the
Agreement relative to lands in the City of Victoria. Mr. Berens will
be requested to furnish this Department with copies of the plans to
which he alludes, in order to afford an opportunity of further
elucidating this subject.
But his present letter discusses a different question that has
arisen in the Island between the local Government and the Company's
Agent, vizt., the site to be surrendered for a Harbor Master's Office.
Into this question, since it is a new one, I shalldecline decline to enter
until I can receive upon it a report from you, which I have to request
accordingly that you will furnish at an early opportunity.
Mr. Berens, you will perceive, suggests that the reconveyance of
the whole Island and of the land in Victoria should be comprised in a single Instrument, and that with a view to it's preparation
and
execution in this Country, you should furnish a plan of the Island
showing the portions of it to be excepted from the reconveyance. He
statesthat that corresponding instructions have been sent by the company to
their Agent. I see no objections to the proposed course,
provided that it be not converted into cause of delay, but in order to
prevent the difficulty which would arise from discrepancies between the
maps sent home to Her Majesty's Government and to the Company, it will
be desirable that their Officers should communicate with each other on
the spot, and agree on the exact extent of the reservations to be made
and themanner manner in which they should be described in the reconveyance.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble Servant Newcastle
Dugald Mactavish to W.A.G. Young, 29 July 1863, enclosing sketch maps of Victoria area so deeds can be prepared to convey "the property in question by the HBC to the Crown in accordance with the Agreement entered into in London in February last."
W.A.G. Young to Dugald Mactavish, 1 August 1862, noting a discrepancy in the sketch maps regarding the situation of the government
lot.