Colonial Despatches

I have to acknowledge your letter of 26th instant inclosing one from the Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co with the accounts of the expenditure of the Company at Vancouvers Island and desiring us to state whether the remarks in this letter respecting the mode of charging the cost of the new Government Buildings in that Island suggest any alteration in our report on the subject of 14th inst.

2. The conclusion stated in that report was that the question as to the ownership of the Land by the sale of which the new Govt buildings had been constructed, and consequently whether the money expended on those buildings was to be regarded as public money or as an advance from the Company, must depend on the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as to the Company's right to land by reason of occupancy previous to 1849, and that this was an additional reason for desiring to obtain the decision of that Tribunal at an early date. Mr Beren's letter merely points out that the land on which the new Buildings have been erected, as well as that by the sale of which the money for their erection was obtained, is a portion of the Land claimed by the Company. This fact was adverted to in the previous correspondence. It appears to require no modification of the suggestion in the report from this Board of the 14th inst as to the course to be taken in the matter.

3. The accounts enclosed in Mr Berens' letter are in continuation of those received from the Company in February 1858, and continue the statement of the receipts and expenditure of the Company as representing the Crown in Vancouvers Island to the close of 1860. They will be subjected to such examination as the means at our command will allow, and I shall have the honor hereafter to submit a report upon them for the information of the Duke of Newcastle.