Colonial Despatches

I have had the honor to receive the Duke of Buckingham & Chandos' Circular despatch of 1st September requiring information respectingthe the telegraphic system in operation in British Columbia.

2. I now forward a Map shewing the course of the line of cable and wire.

3. The telepraph belongs to an American company. It wasestablished established with a view of communicating with Asia and Europe by way of Behring's Straits. But the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable has caused the abandonment of the work. The line between Quesnelmouth on the Fraser River, and the Skeena River isnow now utterly useless. That between Victoria and Cariboo, I fear hardly pays the working expenses.

4. The system in operation is that known by the name of "Morse's."

5. It would be ungrateful of me to close this despatchwithout without bearing testimony to the extreme liberality of the Western Union Company to whom the Wire belongs. My Messages pass free to all parts of the line; and in San Francisco, where, not choosing to use the concession accorded to me, the money I paid, as a stranger, was returnedto to the hotel where I was staying in less than half an hour.