No. 14, Financial

I have the honour to enclose herewith for your Grace's sanction,
the Estimates for the Colony of British Columbia for the year 1863.

2. These documents have been prepared for some time, but I
did not forward them at an earlier date, as I gleaned from your Grace's
Despatch No 135 of 1st August last, the Estimates for 1862 were
still under consideration, and I was desirous of possessing myself of
your Grace's views thereupon prior to the departure of the 1863
Estimates. I fear however that inconvenience may arise were I to delay
further, and I therefore now transmit them.

3. Your Grace will observe that the proposed expenditure
exceeds the Revenue by £44,670. This is caused by the sum of
£70,000 being inserted for Roads. The detail to be found under
that head exhibits work that the Country most urgently demands—that
there is indeed an almost indispensable necessity should be
vigorously prosecuted in order to keep pace with the rapidly
increasing requirements of the Colony. Of such work however
only the most pressing has been admitted: there are numerous
other roads trails and improvements in the communication of
almost equal importance; but they must of necessity be deferred
until the incoming Revenue will pay the cost. As it is, the works that are named cannot be carried on without extraneous aid,
and that aid I have confidence will be sanctioned by your Grace upon
a consideration of the plain facts I presented in my Despatch
No 58 of the 15th December 1862. It is necessary for me here
to repeat the arguments I then advanced in favor of the policy of
contracting another loan of £50,000. The enormous cost of
transport, is crippling enterprise, chilling immigration, and
retarding the development of the vast auriferous wealth of the Colony
upon which at the present moment its existence depends, and to
reduce that cost by the continued construction of roads in a
Colony so impracticable of access as British Columbia is, I conceive
not only an indispensable necessity and an imperative duty on the
part of the Government, but also a measure of sound policy, the
reproductive efforts of which, would, as I shewed in my
aforesaid Despatch, in their beneficial effects, be immediately realized.

4. In accordance with the instructions contained in your Grace's
Despatch No 120 of the 9th May 1862, I have made provision
in the Estimates for the salary of the Governor to be paid out of the
Colonial Revenue.

5. I have placed upon the Estimates a sum of £500 in aid of
the Admiralty Survey now being prosecuted on the coast of British
Columbia an accompanying copy of a letter from Captain Richards, recently
conducting the survey in these waters, explains the necessity
which existed for affording this aid, and under the circumstances
I did not hesitate to anticipate your Grace's approval to a sum so
well applied.

6. I have also placed upon the Estimates the sum of £5052 to
reimburse Her Majesty's Government the advances by overdrafts &c. A
memorandum is enclosed with the Estimates exhibiting how this
amount is arrived at. I have omitted the sum of £10,704, which by
the Treasury letter of 16th June 1862, forwarded in your Grace's Despatch No 140, 16th
September last, was (as I believe under a misconception
of its nature) also required to be repaid this year on like account.
I feel sure that the explanation I rendered in my Depatch No 6,
10th January 1863 respecting the particular application of this sum, will have satisfied your Grace that it was purely a Military necessity,
independent of the Colony and therefore not chargeable to it.

7. In the preparation of the Estimates I have endeavoured to
avoid the superfluous detail as to the salaries objected to in
the Estimates submitted for the past year, and I have sought to
afford the full information required upon other points. I trust
therefore that the present Estimates may be found satisfactory.