No. 3
[2135, CO 60/38, p. 10; received 23 February
]
7th January 1870
My Lord,
I have had the honor to receive Your Lordship's Despatch No
101, of the 3rd November, enclosing copies of correspondence
between Mr Young, the Colonial Office and the Treasury
respecting his application for a gratuity onaccount account of the loss
of his Office and authorizing me to recommend to the Council
that a gratuity equivalent to not more than six months Salary
should be voted to Mr Young.
2. Having regard to the peculiar legislative constitution of
this Colony, which enables any grant however exceptional in its
character to be obtained from the Council if the Official
Members are ordered to vote as the Governor directs, I think itmy my
duty to call Your Lordship's attention to some circumstances in
this case before the vote is brought forward at Your Lordship's
instance.
3. Mr Young's case is not in fact analogous to those of other
Officials who have received compensation for loss of Office.
That from which Mr Young was removed has not been abolished.
The Colony has derived no financial advantage from his removal;
on the contrary it has been put to the expense ofseveral several
hundred pounds for passage money; and neither the Legislature
nor the public desired that he should be removed. Under these
circumstances I fear that the Council will not regard it as a
case in which compensation can fairly be claimed from the
Colony, especially when through the circumstances attending Mr
Young's removal it has already been charged with the expense of
two Colonial Secretarys
forseveral several months—full Salary having
been paid to Mr Young up to the 7th April, while half Salary
was paid to Mr Hankin from 21st November, to 31st December,
the date of his arrival in the Colony, and full Salary from that
date to 7th April when he assumed the duties of his Office.
4. On the Union of Vancouver Island with British Columbia it
was not the intention of Her Majesty's Government or of the
community to abolish Officessimply simply in order to dismiss all
public servants who had the misfortune to belong to one section
of the United Colony, so much as to consolidate the double
official departments for the sake of economy. In the case of
the Colonial Secretary's Office, a vacancy was created in that
of British Columbia (Mainland) by the resignation of Mr Birch
which readily enabled such consolidation. Mr Young, Colonial
Secretary of Vancouver Islandwas was therefore appointed Acting
Colonial Secretary of the United Colony and he discharged the
duties of his Office for two years, nor was there any public
objection to his continuing to hold the appointment. If he had
done so he would then have been the only Official formerly
holding any Office of importance in Vancouver Island who had
been retained in the Service except the Chief Justice. I need
not conceal from Your Lordship that considerablesoreness soreness of
feeling exists in Vancouver Island as to the manner in which the
rearrangement of the public departments was effected on the
Union of the Colonies, and I am sure that the irritation will be
reawakened by any application for compensation to Mr Young; who
was not removed for the advantage of the Colony; and who was
replaced by another Officer sent from England, not by anyone
within theGovernment Government for whom it was expedient to provide.
I am satisfied that the Unofficial Members of the Council will
not approve of the proposed grant and if passed by the Official
Vote only the proceeding will be regarded as an arbitrary
exercise of the authority of the Government.
5. I annex an Extract from the Minutes of the Executive Council
from which it appears that the grant of passage money to Mr
Young wasintended intended as compensation in full for all claim.
I have the honor to be
My Lord,
Your most obedient
humble Servant
A. Musgrave