Colonial Despatches

I have to acknowledge your despatch "separate" of the 25th of April last, enclosing a letter from Colonel Moody dated the 9th on the subject of the allowance made to him to defray the cost of his passage to British Columbia and urging compliance with his application.

I greatly regret that I cannot feel at liberty to comply with it. You will acquaint Colonel Moody that the sum of One hundred pounds (£100) for which he applied while in England for the passage of Mrs Moody was paid to his credit at Messrs Cox and Co, in November last, and that with regard to the application contained in his present letter for a further sum of One hundred pounds (£100) on this account, as Colonel Moody has already received a more liberal allowance for the expenses of his passageto to British Columbia than has been granted in other cases, I do not feel at liberty to authorize any additional payment to him on this account. I am sorry to hear from him, and to find the intelligence confirmed by yourself, that so much inconvenience has been felt and continues to be felt by public servants in consequence of the high rate of living in British Columbia. But I fear I should be establishing a very inconvenient precedent by entertaining under such circumstances an individual application, which there is no separate reason to justify.