No. 63

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 of 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 your 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 reference to the present case.