Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
Emigration Office
7 February 1860
We have to acknowledge your letter of the 4th instant enclosing a letter addressed to the Duke of Newcastle by the Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co on the subject of the amount to be paid to the Company on the retransfer of Vancouvers Island to the Crown, and desiring us to report to His Grace, as early as possible, the amount which, in our opinion, it would be advisable to submit for the sanction ofManuscript imageof Parliament this year.
2. The claim of the Hudsons Bay Company has now been reduced to three items vizt

£ S D
Balance of expenditure for public
Works & Establishments 8505. 6.11
Cost of sending out Settlers 25550. 0. 0
Half the expense of searching for
1; Coal at Fort Rupert 6234.12. 3
1; 40289.19. 2
3. To enable us to form an opinion on the point referred to us we directed our Accountant to attend at the Hudsons Bay House this morning and to ascertain, so far as was possible in the cursory examination which the time permitted, that the above claims were supported by Manuscript imagethe Books of the Company. He has reported to us that the Officers of the Company afforded him every facility for inspecting their books, that the Books appeared to have been very carefully kept, and to support the claims put forward by the Company. Of course, however, so hurried and general an examination cannot be accepted as a guarantee of the correctness of the separate items of the account, should H.M. Government think it necessary to scrutinize them in detail.
4. Assuming, however, that such a scrutiny is not intended, the expenditure for sending out Emigrants and for Searching for Coal at Fort Rupert, amounting together to Manuscript image£31.784.12.3 may be considered as admitted claims. But the balance due on account of expenditure for public works and Establishments amounting to £8505.6.11 is made up only to the end of 1857, and our Accountant considers that there is reason to believe that the Land Sales and other sources of Revenue in the two following years will have left a surplus of Revenue over expenditure sufficient, not only to extinguish the Balance against the Crown at the end of 1857, but to throw the balance the other way. Under these circumstances it appears to us that it will be sufficient toManuscript imageto apply to Parliament during the present year for a sum not exceeding £25,000, leaving for adjustment, whenever the complete accounts shall be sent in, the further claims of the Crown on the Company on account of the Local Revenue on the one side and the expenditure on public works and establishments on the other up to the close of 1859.
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
See 871/60 V.C. Island desph.
I should think a vote of £25000 may be taken without any regular audit of the Company's accounts or examination of vouchers, which however must of course precede any final arrangement? The Treasury must of course consent?
If this be assented to, the next step is, to take measures to set the sales of land in Vanc. I. afloat again.
HM F 9
Report to Treasury?
CF 10
N 11
Other documents included in the file
Manuscript image
Draft, Colonial Office to G.A. Hamilton, Treasury, 29 February 1860, forwarding copies of pertinent correspondence and asking that a vote for £25,000 be submitted to parliament.
Minutes by CO staff
Mr Merivale
For the purpose of considerng this matter the T-y will require sufficient materials—(they complain sometimes if we don't give details) & I have accly selected those documents which seem to me to comprize the facts as they now stand, avoiding as much as possible, the controversial portions of the correspondence.
Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale, Herman 7 February 1860, CO 305:15, no. 1326, 283. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. James Hendrickson and the Colonial Despatches project. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/V605LN02.html.

Last modified: 2020-03-30 13:22:16 -0700 (Mon, 30 Mar 2020) (SVN revision: 4193)