No. 139

I have had the honor to receive Your Grace's despatch No. 28
of the 24th May stating that the relative positions of Mr
Begbie and Mr Needham should be explained by a local enactment.

2. I do not see my way to the carrying out Your Grace's
instructions. If I throw the question open for discussion in the
Council, it will take a purely personal turn. Victoria will
support Mr Needham. The mainland probably Mr Begbie. Not
from any certainty as to the superior merits of the former will
Mr Needham be supported by Victoria but because he is known to
be more a party man than Mr Begbie.

3. Another great difficulty is that Mr Needham will not
acknowledge that the Legislature of the Colony has any power over
his Court. He holds that the Order in Council is supreme. Mr
Begbie, and I beg to say myself, believe that Mr Needham's
Court was abolished on Union.

4. I found an instance of the inconvenience of the present state
of things recently when Mr Needham went up to the Cariboo to hear
the case of the Flume Company against the Canadian Company. Mr
Needham heard cases where Mr Begbie had determined there was no
appeal. Mr Begbie being in New Westminster, I suggested that
he should take Mr Needham's place in Victoria, but he refused
stating that it would be very unpleasant for him to have to declare
in Mr Needham's absence that he was no Judge at all, his Court
having been swept away on the Union of the Colonies. My own belief
is that Your Grace will find yourself compelled to withdraw one
of these Gentlemen. I apprehend a very unpleasant discussion in
the Legislative Council at its next sitting respecting the mode in
which the Judicial arrangements of the Colony are left.

5. The present position of things is this—Mr Begbie holds
that the proclamation of Union abolished the Supreme Court of Vancouver
Island and extended that of British Columbia over the whole Colony.
He was until Mr Needham accepted a Commission from me previous
to his departure for Cariboo, sole Judge of that Court.

6. Mr Needham on the other hand holds that the Supreme
Court of Vancouver Island is untouched by the Act of Union, and is
independent of the Local Legislature. If the Order in Council which
creates the Court of the Island is still in force perhaps Your
Grace will be good enough to inform me if I am in the appointment
of Judges under it to use the Public Seal of Vancouver Island which
is still in my possession.

7. I have just received a letter from the Police Magistrate
of Victoria in which he says,

I had an interview with Mr Needham today (16th October) at
which he told me that he did not consider himself to be a Judge
of British Columbia but was Chief Justice of Vancouver Island
and could not act as County Court Judge under the Ordinance of 1867.

Yet Mr Needham accepted a Commission from me creating him a Judge
of the Supreme Court of British Columbia and as such Judge has
reversed some of the decisions of the Gold Commr of Cariboo.

8. I shall make the best of the present state of things but
I see no satisfactory issue from it save in the removal of one of
the Judges. The case is becoming more embarrassing every day.