No. 225, Military Expenses

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Grace's
Despatch of the 6th August No 11 acquainting me of the
requisition made by the Agents of Colonel Moody for the Balance
of Salary due to him as Commissioner of Lands and Works up to
the 31st of March last, and that you had recommended to the
Lords Commissoners of the Treasury, that the payment thereof
should be added to the advances already made from the Imperial
Chest to meet the expenses of the Engineers in British Columbia
the Colonial Revenue being unable to bear the charge.

2. Your Grace is also pleased to remind me that the Colonial
Pay of Colonel Moody is to be paid from the Colonial Revenue, and
that it cannot continue to be advanced from Imperial Funds unless
there should be no means in the Colony of meeting the charge, in
which case you direct me to make a special report on the subject.

3. I would beg very respectfully to request the attention of
your Grace to two Despatches I had the honor to address to the
Secretary of State on the 2nd of July last, Nos 182 and 183,
in which I particularly refer to the expenses of the Royal Engineer
Establishment, and to the inability of the Colony at the present
moment to provide out of her Revenues the means necessary for
their support.

4. The experience obtained since that date has made no change
in the views I then expressed, but on the contrary has also clearly
proved to me that the experiment of uniting Civil and Military
duties has not been attended with the success that was anticipated.

5. Could the Royal Engineers be wholly and solely employed
in Civil Labor, I doubt not that their services would be invaluable,
but when it is considered that their Military duties must be
attended to, and that under all circumstances strict Military
Discipline must prevail, it is easy to comprehend how restricted
their services in reality become, and how expensive is the cost
of their labor, the more especially as the actual number of
working hands is always considerably reduced by Guards, Orderlies,
Servants and Sick.

6. I have upon various occasions requested Colonel Moody
to use every exertion to reduce the expenditure of the Royal
Engineers, and I doubt not that he has endeavoured to do so, to
the best of his ability, but still their expenses are far beyond
the means of the Colony to provide for.

7. I regret that it should be so, for I hopefully anticipated
a large Revenue, and indeed looked to the Royal Engineers as in
part the means of producing that Revenue, but my hopes have not
been realized.

8. The whole cost of the civil establishment, I do not
hesitate to assert, the Colony is able to meet in a befitting
manner, and it must be remembered that she has as yet received
no assistance from the Mother Country on Civil account. All the
advances made from the Imperial Chest are solely for services
either directly or indirectly in connection with the Military.

9. I have therefore no alternative but to state that the
Colony cannot at present provide the Funds necessary for the
maintenance of the Military establishment. At some future day
I not only hope but confidently anticipate she will be in a
condition to repay the Advances that have been made to her,
but it is beyond her power to do so at this time. One point
however must not be forgotten. Rapid progress cannot be made
under present circumstances, and large Revenues must not be
instantly expected. The Country of British Columbia is not one
easy of access and development, it is not an extensive plain
intersected by Rivers easy of navigation, but on the contrary
it is rugged and mountainous, without natural roads, and with
Rivers filled with Rapids and Shallows, and rich as it may be,
as it undoubtedly is, in auriferous wealth, the difficulties
that attend Colonization are only to be overcome in course of
time and by much labor, and in proportion as we are enable to
devote funds to the construction of Roads, and by other means
to render its distant Districts accessible, so will the Country
advance in population and wealth.