Colonial Despatches

1. I have the honor to transmit the copy of a correspondence which has passed between the Government, the Acting Attorney General, and the Postmaster of this Colony which explains itself.

2. The extraordinary and anomalous condition of the Postal Establishment of Vancouver Island compels me to trouble you withthis this matter, inasmuch as at present there is no legal guarantee for the safe receipt or transmission of the public correspondence.

3. You will observe that I do not make this reference without having first adopted the only course open to me for the correction of so serious an evil.

4. In the course of my inquiry into the working of the various Departments of this Colony, I arrived at the conclusion that great mismanagement, inconvenience and loss to the public Revenueresulted resulted from a bad postal system inefficiently worked.

5. To remedy this state of things I had the Postal Bill of which I enclose a copy drafted by the Acting Attorney General and introduced into the Legislative Council which it passed, and was sent in the usual course to the Legislative Assembly, where it was thrown out without even the form of discussion, and I see no reason to anticipate that the Assembly will take any step to place the Department on a sound or legal footing tillsome some financial scandal take place such as that which signalized Mr D'Ewes administration of this important Department in 1861-2. Indeed it seems unaccountable why steps were not at that time taken by the Legislature to place it on a sound and legal footing.

6. You will observe from the letter of Mr Wootton the present Harbour Master that he is conducting the Postal Department without any Rules or Regulations, and never received any but verbalinstructions instructions, and that he knows of no authority by which the different rates of postage are fixed and levied.

7. You will also learn from the concluding portion of the Acting Attorney General's letter (of May 31st 1865) that he is "at a loss to know by what lawful authority the existing Postal Service" (in this Colony) "has been established."

8. It thus appears that Mr Wootton the present Acting Postmaster was appointed in 1861 without written Regulations andwithout without other than verbal instructions of the Colonial Secretary, the nature of which in his absence I cannot know, and for the issuing of which there does not appear to be any legal authority.

9. It further appears that the Acting Postmaster at present is under no legal control, and that the Governor has no legal warrant for reforming an ill managed Department by issuing Rules and Regulations—by fixing rates of postage and having the proceeds duly accounted for.

10. The financial arrangements are in my opinion of a most unsatisfactory kind, offering great temptations to fraud without any adequate check or means of detection.

11. I would under ordinary circumstances deem it my duty to apply some temporary remedy, but it would be hardly convenient to do so, immediately after the Legislative Assembly having refused to entertain the subject by throwing out a carefully considered Postal Bill which had passed theother other Branch of the Legislature, without reason assigned, or attempt to amend it.

12. I enclose extracts from two local Newspapers of the 27th May containing the only information I have received or can offer on the course adopted by the Legislative Assembly.