No. 37

I have had before me your Despatch
No 168 of the 8th of June 1859,
reporting the circumstances under which you had sanctioned the grant of
extra pay to the Marines brought to Vancouvers Island in Her Majesty's
Ship "Tribune".

As no Sanction had been given by this department for the promises
of extra pay and grants of land stated to have been held out to these
Marines by Captain Magin, the Officer in Command, I caused enquiries to
be made at the War Department and Admiralty, the result of which has
shown that Captn Magin had no due authority for holding out

to
the men such expectations.

I am also given to understand that no extra pay has as yet been
issued. I am unwilling however that the Marines should be disappointed
in an expectation which though unauthorized was in fact held out to
them. For this reason, and adverting also to the high prices of living
in British Columbia and at Vancouvers Island, I have to authorize you to
grant double pay to the Officers and men by allotting to them a Colonial
rate exactly equal to their English rate of pay. This Colonial pay will
only be issuable to Officers and men landed for some permanent duty on
shore, but to all who come within that description it may be issued

retrospectively upon receiving from the Admiral or Senior Officer present
accounts shewing the sums properly due under these directions.