Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Crown Agents with its enclosures stating the circumstances under which they had been compelled to satisfy from funds in their hands the claims for interest and Sinking Fund on the Loans of BritishColumbia Columbia to the amount of £4,125.

I have received with extreme surprise an announcement that the Officer Administering the Government had sent to the Crown Agents, in payment of claims which it was urgently necessary to satisfy, a Draft upon a Bank with which the Colony of British Columbia had no assets, and by which, as far as at present appears, he had no sufficient reason for supposing that the Draft would be honoured. I trust that some explanationof of this proceeding will be furnished.

In the present instance the Crown Agents have received my authority for meeting this claim from funds in their hands in order to save the credit of the Colony, but I can hold out no promise that the same course will be taken in any future case.

I have to request that remittances may at once be made to this Country sufficient to reimburse this advance and to meet futuredemands demands upon the Crown Agents.