Colonial Despatches

I have had the honor to receive Your Lordship's Despatch No 101, of the 3rd November, enclosing copies of correspondence between Mr Young, the Colonial Office and the Treasury respecting his application for a gratuity onaccount account of the loss of his Office and authorizing me to recommend to the Council that a gratuity equivalent to not more than six months Salary should be voted to Mr Young.

2. Having regard to the peculiar legislative constitution of this Colony, which enables any grant however exceptional in its character to be obtained from the Council if the Official Members are ordered to vote as the Governor directs, I think itmy my duty to call Your Lordship's attention to some circumstances in this case before the vote is brought forward at Your Lordship's instance.

3. Mr Young's case is not in fact analogous to those of other Officials who have received compensation for loss of Office. That from which Mr Young was removed has not been abolished. The Colony has derived no financial advantage from his removal; on the contrary it has been put to the expense ofseveral several hundred pounds for passage money; and neither the Legislature nor the public desired that he should be removed. Under these circumstances I fear that the Council will not regard it as a case in which compensation can fairly be claimed from the Colony, especially when through the circumstances attending Mr Young's removal it has already been charged with the expense of two Colonial Secretarys forseveral several months—full Salary having been paid to Mr Young up to the 7th April, while half Salary was paid to Mr Hankin from 21st November, to 31st December, the date of his arrival in the Colony, and full Salary from that date to 7th April when he assumed the duties of his Office.

4. On the Union of Vancouver Island with British Columbia it was not the intention of Her Majesty's Government or of the community to abolish Officessimply simply in order to dismiss all public servants who had the misfortune to belong to one section of the United Colony, so much as to consolidate the double official departments for the sake of economy. In the case of the Colonial Secretary's Office, a vacancy was created in that of British Columbia (Mainland) by the resignation of Mr Birch which readily enabled such consolidation. Mr Young, Colonial Secretary of Vancouver Islandwas was therefore appointed Acting Colonial Secretary of the United Colony and he discharged the duties of his Office for two years, nor was there any public objection to his continuing to hold the appointment. If he had done so he would then have been the only Official formerly holding any Office of importance in Vancouver Island who had been retained in the Service except the Chief Justice. I need not conceal from Your Lordship that considerablesoreness soreness of feeling exists in Vancouver Island as to the manner in which the rearrangement of the public departments was effected on the Union of the Colonies, and I am sure that the irritation will be reawakened by any application for compensation to Mr Young; who was not removed for the advantage of the Colony; and who was replaced by another Officer sent from England, not by anyone within theGovernment Government for whom it was expedient to provide. I am satisfied that the Unofficial Members of the Council will not approve of the proposed grant and if passed by the Official Vote only the proceeding will be regarded as an arbitrary exercise of the authority of the Government.

5. I annex an Extract from the Minutes of the Executive Council from which it appears that the grant of passage money to Mr Young wasintended intended as compensation in full for all claim.