Fisher to Granville

With reference to the interview I had the honour of having with
your Lordship together with a deputation of certain Members of
Parliament regarding the affairs of British Columbia, and more
particularly the question of the removal of the seat of
Government from New Westminster to Victoria Vancouvers Island, I
have now much pleasure in placing before your Lordship, as
requested, a full statement of our case feeling fully confident
that the same will meet with every consideration at your hands
and at the same time assist in enabling you to arrive at a just
decision as to the merits of our Petition now before you.

In the first place I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of a
letter from Mr Monsell dated 4th August, enclosing, according
 to your Lordships instructions copy of a dispatch dated
16th February 1869 to our late Governor Frederick Seymour
regarding the prayer of a certain Petition presented to your
Lordship by the Municipal Council of New Westminster whom I have
the honor to represent.

I would most respectfully draw your Lordships attention to the
same in reconsidering our case and would mention the following facts.

That after the site of the capital had been selected by Lieut:
Colonel Moody of the Royal Engineers, Lieut: Governor
and Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works of the Colony
of British Columbia, and the said selection endorsed by His
Excellency Sir James Douglas the then Governor of the
Colony and approved of by Her Majesty's in council, certain
advertizements were inserted in the Government Gazette and
elsewhere together with the Royal Proclamation declaring that New
Westminster was the capital of the Colony and that Her Majesty
had been pleased to bestow a name upon the then embrayo [sic] City.

These advertisements set forth that a public auction would take
place upon a certain day by the Government of the lots in the
said City & called attention to the fact of New Westminster
having been established by law and royal proclamation the
Capital of the Colony, as an inducement to intending purchasers
to invest at the said sale.

Trusting implicitly in these statements so publicly made by the
authority of the Government of a Crown Colony a large number of
Colonists attended the Sale, and as will be shewn the lots then
purchased brought extraordinary high prices when compared with
the then market value of Crown lands generally.

As we have previously set forth the whole of the purchase
money some $90,000 was absorbed in the general revenue of the
Colony. Now we are prepared to prove upon most reliable
evidence and I would mention to your Lordship the name of
General Moody RE now in England, that at the time of Sale, and
before a single lot was sold, the question was publicly
and directly put by several intending purchasers to the
Government Agent who offered the said lots for sale "if New
Westminster was established as the Capital of the Colony?" The
Answer given was that such was the case, and attention moreover
called by the said Agent to the Royal Proclamation establishing
the fact.

I would further represent that the question was also asked "How
the Government intended to appropriate the proceeds of the
Sale?" The answer to this important question which we are
prepared to prove by most reliable evidence should a Commission
of enquiry be granted, was that the Government would devote the
whole proceeds to the making of roads and bridges and the
improving of Streets within the town. I may mention that at
that time the whole town site was a dense forrest and the said
roads and streets merely existed upon the plan made by the
Government and according to which the lots were sold.

Upon these assurances the sale proceeded and having full
confidence in the representations made by the Government, the
lots not only brought high prices but were mainly purchased not
by Speculators but by those who looked forward to making for
themselves and family a permanent home.

After the purchase money had been paid over to the Government
the people naturally looked to them for the fulfillment of their
pledge as regards roads, streets and bridges, but while the
obligation was not denied on the part of the Government, the
required work was not performed nor was any money devoted for
the purpose.

Being anxious for colonial as also personal interests, to make
the town worthy of the name of the Capital of British Columbia,
the Colonists who purchased lots applied for, and obtained a
Municipal Constitution establishing a Council and investing it
with certain powers to levy taxes upon City property to perform
the work which the Government had distinctly promised as a
condition of Sale should be done out of the purchase money.

This Council during the eight years of its existence raised and
expended the sum of Forty four thousand five hundred dollars,
say $44,500, from taxes and borrowed Thirteen thousand three
hundred and eighty six dollars ($13,386) making a total of say
Fifty seven thousand eight hundred and eighty six dollars, say
$57,886. The whole of this sum was expended in making streets,
roads and bridges in the town site and entirely independent of
private enterprise which would make the sum actually expended
considerably over One Million dollars. The energy and
enterprise of the inhabitants in clearing the forrest, erecting
handsome buildings, many of which are of stone, and generally
overcoming the wild obstructions of nature have been set forth
in several dispatches by the late Governor Frederick Seymour to
the Colonial Office, and I may mention that acting upon these
substantial signs of progress and also the fact of New
Westminster being established by the Government as the Capital,
induced many Colonists to take up and purchase land in the
immediate neighbourhood and establish themselves as farmers,
investing large sums and a great amount of labour and energy in
developing the same.

At the time of New Westminster being proclaimed the Capital of
the Colony, Vancouvers Island was part of the same Colony but a
few years afterwards was for imperial and local reasons
disunited and a Governor sent from Downing Street to each of the
then distinct Colonies.

In 1865 an agitation set in on Vancouvers Island to unite again
with British Columbia under one Government on the grounds of
retrenchment in the public service. This agitation and proposed
union was opposed by British Columbia, not only through its
legislative Council, who passed repeatedly resolutions setting
forth that they believed such union would be detrimental to the
interests of the Colony, but also by Governor Seymour to whose
despatches on the subject I would refer your Lordship.

Notwithstanding such Union was approved of by the Imperial
Government on the ground of reducing the expenditure of the two
Colonies as distinct Governments and your Lordship will notice
by the resolution of the Vancouvers Island Legislature passed at
the time, such Union was asked for and granted as an
"unconditional union."

The Colonies were united under the title of British Columbia and
the late Fredk Seymour entrusted with their Government.

Soon after this "unconditional union" certain parties interested
in real estate at Victoria Vancouvers Island commenced an
agitation for the removal of the Capital from New Westminster to
their City and while the same was popular as far as the Island
was concerned and amongst those located at Victoria and in its
immediate neighbourhood it received no favor at the hands of the
resident population of the Mainland (British Columbia proper).

I would merely ask your Lordship to refer to dispatches now in
your office from the late Governor Frederick Seymour on the
subject of this agitation and also his public statement
contained in his speech from the vice royal throne in opening
the Legislative Council wherein he states that in his opinion
"public faith and honour are surely pledged in favour of New
Westminster" and furthermore says that "Should the matter be
pressed before his consideration he would advise Her Majesty's
Government to command him and his Successors in Office to reside
permanently at New Westminster."

After such Statements from the Governor of the Colony made as
the representative of her Majesty, and in the most public manner
and having full confidence in the good faith of the Government
and justice of our cause, the residents of New Westminster and
Colonists settled on the Mainland generally, deemed it
unnecessary and inadvisable to create a counter agitation on the
subject as they rightly believed such agitation would be hurtful
to the general interest and well being of the Colony.

In proof of this I would state that not even a petition, which
in a Colony with a large mining and foreign floating population
is an easy matter to procure, was presented to your Lordship's
predecessor in Office against the removal of the Capital which I
humbly consider was a sure sign of the confidence we had as a
community, deeply interested in the honor and integrity of the
Government, endorsed and upheld by their representative.

Failing in attaining their object or creating that amount of
sympathy to further their ends in the Colony itself, means were
adopted by the Agitators to bring forward certain Petitions
from those interested in real estate at Victoria but resident in
London, and in a despatch dated Downing Street, October 1/67 to
Governor Seymour the said Petitions were forwarded by his Grace
the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos with permission to quote the
authority of the Home Government in support of the removal of
the Capital to Victoria.

I refer your Lordship to these said petitions and also the
answer of the late Governor dated New Westminster December
24/67, to the above mentioned despatch in which he speaks of
"the easy but lengthy task of commenting on the statements
contained in the printed Memorials" which comments or expression
of opinion were not even asked for by his Grace the Duke of
Buckingham and Chandos.

These petitions from residents in London were set forth as the
opinions and wishes of the whole Colony, and the result of the
same, and also the before mentioned despatch, was that in
opening the Legislative Council for the Session of 1868 His
Excellency the late Governor Frederick Seymour stated that "Her
Majesty's Government were of opinion that in my message of the
27th March 1867, I took an extreme view as to the extent to
which public faith and honour are pledged to the Purchasers of
land in New Westminster."

The result of this, and without an appeal to the Colonists at
the polls, or the question being brought before the Country,
the site of the Capital was removed from New Westminster to
Victoria by a Legislative Council not having full
representative powers and composed of Gentlemen nearly all
interested in real Estate at Victoria.

I would state that the result of this removal has been ruin and
disaster to many a home, the labour and persevering energy of
the inhabitants of New Westminster and also the farmers in the
immediate neighbourhood who look to that City for their market,
has by this removal been rendered comparatively worthless at a
time when they were beginning to look forward to reap the
benefits likely to accrue for the location of the seat of Government.

Furthermore the Municipal Council of New Westminster did in the
year 1862 with the consent and concurrence of the Government
issue Debentures secured from the Municipal Revenues of the
City, to the amount of Thirteen thousand three hundred and
eighty six dollars ($13,386) which Debentures will shortly fall
due. By taking away the seat of Government the city property
has been deprived of that value which alone constituted the
basis of investment and thereby removed those conditions which
called for and imparted practical effect to the exercise of
municipal functions.

Through the Government failing to perform their part of the
Contract in improving and making streets and roads this money
required had to be borrowed by the Municipal Council and the
interest paid by general taxation on the City property.

Through the act of the Government that property purchased from
them and the proceeds of which purchase they have received, has
depreciated so much in value by the unexpected and unlooked for
removal of the Capital, that real estate has become nearly
worthless as taxation to pay even the interest upon this amount
is rendered impossible and the Municipality unjustly deprived
of the means to fulfil its pledges to their fellow Colonists.

On behalf of the Municipal Council which is the only
representative body on the mainland, I am prepared to prove
should your Lordship be pleased favorably to consider the
appointment of a Commission of enquiry into the matter:

THAT the removal of the Capital from New Westminster was against
the wish of the majority of the Colonists of British Columbia.

THAT for imperial and Colonial reasons such removal from the
centre of population and the producing part of the Colony to a
town on an outlying Island was inadvisable.

THAT Victoria owing to its Geographical position is unsuited as
the Capital of a future important Colony like British Columbia
and ALSO that the pledges which I have before mentioned were
most distinctly and publicly given.

Your Lordship in your despatch to his Excellency the late F.
Seymour dated 16th February 1869 advised the Municipal Council
to bring their case before the Legislative Council. I would state
that before the removal of the Capital took place the Municipal
Council of New Westminster placed a formal protest against such
removal in the hands of Excellency F. Seymour, which protest
bears date April 7th 1868 and it is therein stated that in the
event of the removal of the seat of Government, they would look
to the Government for the redemption of the Debentures issued by
them as before mentioned.

This protest was laid before the Legislative Council by the late
Governor and will be found in the Sessional Papers of the
Council for 1868.

As a Crown Colony, not having full representative powers and
considering the removal an act of the Home Government we come to
you for redress, feeling it to be a case entirely within the
power of the Imperial Government to help, from the fact of our
being a Crown Colony and not having those representative powers
through our Legislative Council able to deal with such an
important question.

We consider we have undoubted claims both in equity and law, and
while being adverse to creating a hurtful agitation in the
Colony or taking other steps which have been suggested, On behalf
of the Colonists of the Mainland I would ask your Lordship to
grant us a full enquiry into the matter.

I respectfully contend that we have a Claim for compensation
from the Home or Colonial Government.

That Members of the Civil Service in the Colony proved the same
confidence as regards the location of the Capital, that we as
Colonists and purchasers of lots in New Westminster from the
Government evince, in the fact that they incurred a large
expenditure in erecting houses of a permanent character in our
City, a Petition from them, as public Servants, regarding the
subject I now address your Lordship upon, is I believe before you.

I would ask that our new Governor Mr Musgrave be called upon
for a full report as to the question at issue and that your
Lordship would take under your most favorable consideration the
desirability of appointing an entirely disinterested
Commission of enquiry to look into our case.

WE ask for the return of the Capital to our City and as such
I am given to understand is inexpedient, I humbly crave for
compensation to the New Westminster lot holders who purchased
property from the Government of a Crown Colony upon
representations which have not been carried out.

WE ask for the privilege of receiving back from the Government
the amount paid at the original sale of the said lots and
consider we have a claim for at least a proportion of the
improvements made bona fide upon the same on the assurance that
New Westminster was the established Capital of the Colony.

The conditions of Sale have not been carried out but the whole of
the purchase money has been absorbed in the general revenue of
the Government.

The money borrowed by the Municipal Council of New Westminster
to which I have before referred will in a few months become due
and under the circumstances of these Debentures having been
issued upon the faith of the Government promises so plainly
given, I would ask that provisions be made either in England or
through the Governor of the Colony to guarantee the payment of
interest upon the amount now outstanding. Moreover I would urge
that payment of the said Debentures be undertaken by the
Government they receiving a certain lien upon the Municipal
taxation as security for the same.

I bring these matters before your Lordship feeling fully
confident in the justice of our cause and am assured that by the
kindly interest you were pleased to manifest in the case I laid
before you during the interview I had the honor of having
with your Lordship at the Colonial Office, you will give them
all your serious consideration.

As the representative of the Municipal Council of New
Westminster I shall await anxiously the decision of your
Lordship on the subject. I will be only too glad to furnish
full evidence to any commission of inquiry you may be pleased to
appoint and have every confidence in leaving the matter entirely
in your Lordship's hands.

I have done my best to place the whole facts before your
Lordship, to do this I have specially journeyed at a great
expense and loss of time from our far distant Colony. Those I
represent have entrusted me with their confidence and upon
their, and my own, part I respectfully lay our case before you;
having no doubt, if you are pleased to inquire into the matter
but that justice will be done. I have performed my duty and
await the issue.

Trusting your Lordship will pardon the length of this despatch
and feeling confident that you will grant the same your
favorable consideration.