No. 84, Financial

It being my intention to quit this place to day on a
visit to British Columbia, which may occupy four or five
weeks, I am desirous

before my departure of addressing Your
Grace upon a subject of the deepest importance to that Colony.

2. I had the honor of informing Your Grace in my Despatches
Nos 70 and 76 of the 3rd and 16th instant, of the
reported great discoveries of Gold in the Shilmilcomeen, and
on the Southern frontier of British Columbia near Colvile;
of the rush of people to that part of the Country, and of the
urgency

which existed for pushing on with vigour the work of
the road from Hope to the New Diggings.

3. Prodigious efforts have hitherto been made by the
people of Oregon to throw supplies, by means of the Columbia River, into the Southern frontier of the British Possessions,
and since these new discoveries so close to their own Territory,
those efforts have been redoubled, and unless we adopt instant

and effective measures, the revenues of the Colony will suffer
to an extent which we can hardly now foresee.

4. Your Grace is aware of our struggles to reduce the cost
of transport by opening roads through the Mountains from
Douglas, Yale and Hope, and I was in hopes of being able to
effect those great and important works through the immediate
revenues of

the Colony, and without foreign aid. It would
have been no small satisfaction to have done so, in view of
the magnitude of the undertaking, and I confidently believe
my hopes would have been realized, but for the events
abovementioned, and which render the immediate completion
of these roads a matter of the most urgent necessity.

5. The whole expense

of the Trail from Douglas to Cayoosh,
including 25 miles of Wagon road, which is now finished; the
most expensive part of the road from Yale; and a portion of
the Hope Trail to Shilmilcomeen, have been defrayed out of
the current revenue. The remainder of the Yale road to
Spuzzum, and of the Trail to Shilmilcomeen will be paid, as
arranged with the Contractors, in British Columbia Bonds,
bearing

interest at 6 per cent per annum.

6. In order to complete the communications there remains:
.off On the Douglas route,

From the 28 Mile House to Cayoosh, a distance of about
34 Miles of land carriage.
.off On the Yale route,

From Spuzzum to Boston Bar, an exceedingly difficult portion
of about 15 miles, and from thence to Yale

a distance of about 40 miles.
.off end

7. The portion of the road from Spuzzum to Boston Bar has
just been contracted for by Colonel Moody for Nine Thousand Pounds,
and it will probably take an additional sum of Five Thousand
pounds to open the remaining portion to Lytton.

8. Thus in addition to the works for which we have provided
the means

of payment in the Colony, we would require as follows:

For Road from Yale to Lytton.......14,000

For Road from Douglas to Cayoosh[…]16,000

£30,000

9. Being unwilling to make a further issue of Bonds,
lest their depreciation should greatly increase the cost
of the roads in progress, I directed the Treasurer to
advertise for a Loan to the extent of Twenty Five Thousand pounds;
but it

resulted in only one offer, and that for
the sum of Two Thousand pounds at 12 per cent per annum interest.

10. This circumstance taken in connection with the high
rate of interest, (one and a half to five per cent per mensem)
to be obtained for money loaned for short periods, shews
that there is but a scanty supply of capital for the

every
day demands of commerce. There is no currency except coin;
there is no money which can be spared to be locked up in
an advance to the Government, except at a rate of interest
which we could not afford to pay.

11. Our only resource then is to turn to the Mother
Country to endeavour to effect a Loan to the extent of Fifty
Thousand pounds, and in this I trust Your

Grace will afford
us your valuable aid. It would naturally be a subject of
gratification if this, the youngest of Her Majesty's Colonies,
could arrange a Loan at rates approaching those paid by other
British Colonies of the same Continent, and as far as the
security is concerned, I venture to submit that the revenue
of British Columbia can give as undoubted security for a small
Loan as the Canadas can offer for a large one.

The revenue of the year was calculated to exceed the
expenditure, and it has surpassed the estimate, while the
expenditure has been successfully kept hitherto within the
prescribed limits, excepting of course the heavy charge on
Military account, which it is my anxious endeavour that the
Colony should be placed in a position both to defray and to
utilize as soon as possible. But it is sufficiently

evident
to Your Grace that neither can the expense of the Military
Establishments be defrayed by the Colony, nor can Soldiers
be moved from one point to another, until roads and communications
be opened so as to make the Country practicable for the Merchant
and the Baggage Train.

12. I believe that the ordinary course in effecting Colonial
Loans is to place the matter in the hands

of an Agent in London,
who undertakes to pay the interests, redeem such portions of
the principal as become payable &c on the terms of a fixed
commission. The terms as to the interest, commission etc.,
must be settled, I presume, through or with, such Agent, to
whom the Colonial Government find themselves to make from
time to time, such remittances as may seem

proper.

13. The assistance which I venture to solicit of Your
Grace, is the selection of an Agent through whom the details
of the transaction may be managed; and to whose integrity
and ability may be entrusted the negociation of the terms to
which such a Loan would have to submit; whether such a Loan,
from its

amount, is best fitted for being raised by subscription
or by public advertisement, or by private tender, e.g. to
Insurance Offices, or other Bodies having large amounts of
available capital seeking investment.

14. I should hope that such an Agent might be found, and
as I should expect to have to follow

his advice and experience
in such a matter, I presume that there would be nothing rash
in undertaking to acquiesce in such terms as he may be able
to obtain, the necessary details for carrying out those terms,
and for pledging the resources of this Colony for their
fulfilment,

being contained in a Proclamation having the force of Law.