Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 65, of the 31st of August, forwarding certain papers relative to the powers of taxation conferred upon the Corporation of the City of Victoria by "the Victoria Incorporation Act 1862." I referred these papers for the opinion ofthe the Law Officers of the Crown in compliance with your request, and I transmit to you herewith a Copy of the answer which has been received from them.

It does not very clearly appear from your Despatch what are the precise questions which you wished to be submitted to the Law Officers, and it is therefore possible that the information which you now receive is not exactly what you desire.

In future cases in which you may find it advisable to seek the opinion of the Law Officers in this country yourrequest request should be accompanied by a clear statement of the specific questions to which you require an answer and of the facts on which that answer would depend with copies of all material documents, as for instance, in the present case, of the bye Laws of the Corporation to which allusion is made in the enclosure to your Despatch.

In the Parliamentary Papers noted in the Margin, Copies of which accompanied my Despatch No. 50, of the 27th of October, you will find much that is valuable with referenceto to the present case.