<persName ref="prs:carnarvon"><surname>Carnarvon</surname>, </persName> to <persName ref="prs:douglas_j"><surname>Douglas</surname>, <forename>James</forename></persName> 23 May 1859, LAC RG7:G8C/8, 98. Carnarvon (Parliamentary Under-Secretary) addressee Douglas

Published by Jim Hendrickson and the University of Victoria.

Carnarvon, to Douglas, James 23 May 1859, LAC RG7:G8C/8, 98.The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.6, ed. James Hendrickson and the Colonial Despatches project. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/B597070.html. LAC RG7:G8C/8 LAC RG7 G8C/8 98 70 B.C. 1859 rg7_g8c_08_00055r.jpg Transcribed from microfilm archives, marked up in Waterloo Script, then transformed into TEI P5 XML.

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Despatch from London.

Carnarvon responds to Douglas’s request to increase the salary assigned to the Office of Governor of British Columbia. Carnarvon is prepared to sanction a £1,200 annual increase from Colonial resources, provided that the Revenue of British Columbia amounts in the aggregate to not less than fifty thousand pounds (£50,000).

 Carnarvon,
Downing Street,
Douglas, James Inserted revisionDesc with @status="unproofed".Added abstract.
No. 70 LAC, RG7, G8C/8, p. 98 (CO 398/1, p. 292)
Downing Street,
23 May 1859 Sir,

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your private letter of the 10th February in which you represent the inadequacy of the salary assigned to the Office of Governor of British Columbia.

The frankness with which you have explained yourself in a matter of personal concern, and of much delicacy is fully appreciated by me. It relieves me of the embarrassment which often attends communications upon such subjects, and enables me to address you with corresponding candor.

It is impossible for me to question for a moment the statements you make as to the expenses unavoidably devolving upon you as the Governor of Vancouver's Island and British Columbia, nor the present extreme dearness of every necessary of life in those Colonies. I yield, therefore, tothe the conviction that your emoluments have been fixed at too low a rate, and I am prepared to sanction an addition to your salary of One thousand two hundred pounds (£1,200) out of the local receipts of the current year provided that the Revenue of British Columbia amounts in the aggregate to not less than fifty thousand pounds (£50,000). The numerous despatches which I have addressed to you explaining the impossibility of imposing on this Country any of the charges of Government for a Colony which has been forced into existence by its gold discoveries relieve me of the task of repeating that I cannot depart from the principle by which, in this respect, I have been guided from the outset. You will, accordingly, distinctly understand that whilst I am happy to meet your wishes to the extent above named the addition in question can only be made out of Colonial resources, and on the condition stated.

I have the honor to be Sir, Your most obedient humble servant Carnarvon in the absence of Sir E.B. Lytton