Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 72 of the 23rd of November, in which you request that the coin sent out to British Columbia from this Country in the year 1860 may not be reckoned as part of the Parliamentary Grant in aid of the Colony. I have to refer you to the letter from the Board of Treasurydated dated 25th of October 1860 and transmitted to you for your guidance in my despatch No. 58 of the 30th of that month, (and acknowledged in yours of 8th February 1861 No. 13) in which it is expressly stated that the value of the Coins, amounting to £6900, would be paid from the Parliamentary grant and that the Colonial Treasurer should abstain from drawing upon the Paymaster General to an equivalent extent. The fact that part of the sums grantedby by Parliament for the service of British Columbia has been sent out in Coin can afford no reason why it should be treated as a present in addition to the vote, and I must decline to accede to your application.

Should you before the receipt of this instruction have drawn for this sum of £6900 or for any part of it, it will be necessary that you should limit to a corresponding extent your drafts on the amount which will be voted by Parliament forthe the service of the Colony for the year 1862-63.