No. 26

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your
Grace's Despatches No 5 and 6 of the 17th and 22nd January last,
acquainting me that Proclamations Nos 3, 4, and 8, and the
"Ditches Rules and Regulations" which were transmitted in my
Despatch No 46 of the 4th November 1862 had received Her
Majesty's approval and confirmation.

2. The Sunday Observance Act No 6 has been forwarded to
the Attorney General in order that the necessary Schedule may
be appended, and will be transmitted to Your Grace in due course.

3. I have to explain with respect to Proclamation No 7
(Lytton Alexandria Toll Act 1862) which as Your Grace observes "taxes water carriage for the improvement of land carriage,"
that the Act in question was passed at the request and for the
protection of the Contractor, who had undertaken to construct
the road at his own expense in consideration of a Charter
empowering him to levy a toll of one half penny a pound on
all goods &c passing along the road, as his sole means of reimbursement.

4. He represented that persons sought to evade the tax by
crossing the River above Lytton or by going a short distance
up the River by boat, and striking the contractors road beyond
the Toll collectors station. The attention of Government was
also strongly called to the fact through the Toll Collector and
the resident Magistrate of Lytton.

5. To put a stop to a practise that would inevitably have
imposed a great loss on the Contractor and ultimately on the
Government the provisions of the Act which appear objectionable
to Your Grace were made applicable to all goods whether carried
by land or by water. This would have been neither just nor
politic, had there existed a practicable water communication,
but there being no navigable Rivers between Lytton and Alexandria,
and all goods being conveyed between those places exclusively
by land, there was practically no injustice in the course
pursued, as it does not affect the interest of any persons other
than those seeking to evade the toll.

6. Trusting that this explanation may satisfy Your Grace as
to the expediency of the Act, and that it may receive Her Majesty's
approval.