No. 150

1. The latest advices from British Columbia, report
satisfactorily as to the peace and good order which reigns
in the colony; the confidence of the people in its auriferous
wealth, notwithstanding occasional fits of panic is unbounded;
but there is a general outcry for better roads into the interior,
the difficulty of access still forming the great impediment to
the development of its mineral resources.

2. The cost of transport enhances the price of food, and
of all other necessaries of life, from Lytton upwards; to an
extent which absorbs nearly the whole of the miners earnings,
large as they occasionally are. The production of food by the
cultivation of the soil in the mining districts and the
improvement of the Harrison river route into a waggon road,
and otherwise opening the great commercial thoroughfares of
the country, are measures of relief to which I have urgently
directed the attention of the commissioner of Lands and Works.

3. The extensive plains on the "Pitt," "Sumas," and
"Chilwhayook" Rivers, are to be hurriedly surveyed, and thrown
into 80 acre sections for immediate occupation for the purpose
of raising food and retaining a permanent population in the country.

4. Sales of town land are soon to take place at Queensborough,
Forts Yale, Hope and Port Douglas, which I trust will bring in a
considerable amount of Revenue.

5. The Customs House Receipts for the last fortnight, amount
to something over £773, Sterling, and will rapidly increase with
the growth and expansion of the country.

6. The Mining Districts yield hardly Revenue enough to pay
their own police expenses, in consequence of the difficulty of
collecting the License Fee on Miners, who will pay no tax except
through the force of compulsion.

7. We must, I think, adopt some other system of taxation
pressing less directly upon the individual miner. The Miners
right, and the export duty on gold; features of the Australian
system, recommend themselves from the ease and simplicity of their
collection, and having already the machinery and staff required
for that purpose. The state of the country is however hardly
ripe as yet, for the imposition of an export duty on gold, but
the day is probably not far distant when the gold will be
exchanged in the Country and exported in large quantities by
Banking and Commercial Houses, when the difficulty of collecting
the duty will cease.

8. Many reasons induce me to try another plan which under firm
management would I think work well. By remodelling the whole system
of mining regulations in British Columbia and instead of levying
mining fees which would, in that case, be abolished, I would propose
to treat the gold fields simply as crown land, and letting it out
in large or small allotments, on leases, at a fixed rent, to any
persons disposed to work the soil. The revenue would thus be
derived from a land rent, and not be levied under the name of an
obnoxious tax, and tenants would be ejected at will on their
failure to pay the stipulated rent.

I will have more I hope to communicate on those subjects by
the next mail.

9. Captain Richards is now engaged in Her Majesty's Surveying
Ship "Plumper", in making a survey of the lower part of Fraser's
River, and Lieut Mayne has been detached to make a reconnaisance
of the river to the Fountain, with instructions to return by
Harrison River for the same purpose, I anticipate much valuable
information from the report of that officer, which I will forward
to you when received.

The numbers of the Victoria Gazette mentioned in the margin
*
are herewith forwarded.