No. 50

I have the honor to transmit herewith for your information, the
Custom House Returns of Imports for the quarter ending with the
30th day of September last amounting to the comparatively
large sum of £231.376 Sterling which shows the prodigiously
increased trade of this Port.

2. Another Return shows that the amount of fees collected at
the Custom House is $6486.56; a disproportionately small sum,
considering the amount of Imports, in consequence of no Customs
Duties being levied in this Port; but the sum collected will
nevertheless be sufficient to pay the salaries of the Officers
and to defray all the other expenses connected with the Custom
House, so that it will not be burdensome to the Colony.

3. There is also herewith forwarded Returns of British and
foreign vessels which have entered this Port up to the quarter
ending on the 30th day of September and to the 25th day of
November last.

4. I have also the honor of forwarding a statement of the
quantities of public land sold in this Colony from the 10th day
of October 1857 to the 4th day of November instant, as
exhibited in the series of tables numbered from 1 to 7, the
gross quantity in acres being a little over 30,924 acres.
*

5. A great part of that land especially in the Saanich and
Cowitchin Districts is not yet allotted, but you will observe
that the purchasers have all been required to pay an instalment
of 25 per cent on their respective lots as a necessary condition
of registration.

6. The sums of money collected during the year on account of
those land sales as shown by the tables referred to, amount to
£8586.9, including the sum of £664-17-3 received in payment of
land sold previously to the period embraced by those tables.

7. There is now due to the Colony a balance of £24,056-18-4, on
account of land sales, which the parties will be called upon to
pay as the instalments become due, with interest at the rate of
5 per cent per annum on their respective balances.

8. The following comparative table will show the quantities of
public land sold respectively in the years 1857 & 1858

Public lands sold in 1857 6303 105/160

do do " 1858 30,984 127/160

24,681 22/160 acres

giving an excess of sales over the previous year to the extent
of 24,681 22/160 acres.

9. There has been a remarkable increase this year in the
population of this Colony, in consequence of the discovery of
Gold in Fraser's River. Victoria from a village has grown up
into a town of considerable extent, and become the seat of a
large and growing trade, being still the only Port of Entry for
ships bound to British Columbia.

10. The Country has this year received an impetus, which, I
think, will lead to the regular and rapid development of its
resources. With reference to those tables