Colonial Despatches

I have to acknowledge your letter of 7th instant, with one from the Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co on the subject of the land surrendered to the Crown at Victoria VanCouvers Island.

2. Governor Douglas proposes as a final settlement of the questions in dispute between the Crown and the Company that the Crown on the one hand should give up a lot of land at the foot of Fort Street assigned to it by the Agreement of Febry 1862, for a Harbour Masters Office &c, and that the Company on the other hand should surrender in exchange for it a lot at the foot of Broughton Street for the same purpose—and should also give up a portion of the Government Reserve marked Z on the plan prepared by Mr McTavish, and the lots 1603, 1605 & 1607—the first being the lot on which the Post Office stands and the other adjoining lots required for the public service. The Governor of the Hudsons Bay Co in the letter you now enclose expresses the readiness of the Company to accept this arrangement—so far as they have the power to do so. But they desire it to be understood (as is reasonable) that they surrender only the rights they actually possess, and that the arrangement is made subject to and saving the right of third parties (if any) to whom the lots in question may have been already conveyed.

3. It only remains to communicate Sir Edmund Head's letter to Governor Douglas and to direct Govr Douglas as soon as the Lots in question have been transferred to the Crown, to prepare an accurate map of the Land and to settle with the Agent of the Company the terms in which the land to be secured to the Company and that to be returned to the Crown are to be described in the reconveyance of the Island to the Crown. The reconveyance must I presume be effected by Letters Patent under the Great Seal revoking the letters Patent of Janry 1849 by which the Island was granted to the Hudsons Bay Company.