Wood to Kimberley

Having arrived in England from British Columbia in which Colony
I have been resident for upwards of eight years, and during a
portion of which time I have been in the Service of the Crown I
have the honor to submit the following statement for your
Lordship's favorable consideration.

2. Sometime before leaving British Columbia I addressed a note
to His Excellency Governor Musgrave referring to the position I
held in the Colony and stating upon what grounds of merit and
public service I ventured to hope that my case, when occasion
offered, might be favorably considered. His Excellency favored
me with a reply and more than one interview, and he was good
enough to say that he would transmit to the Colonial Office
copies of our correspondence wherein the nature of my services
is detailed, together with such comments of his own as he might
think proper to make and to these I venture to refer Your Lordship.

3. I may however here state that the circumstances of my case
are shortly these. Early in 1863 I arrived in Vancouver Island
(then a separate Colony) and in obedience to what I understood
to be the guiding principle in the Colonial Service, that local
merit would enable me to secure the honor and Emoluments of my
profession I endeavoured to the best of my ability to
distinguish myself at the local Bar.

4. This point of the presumable recognition by the Colonial
Office of local merit and services, was, I can assure your
Lordship a matter upon which I had just reason to rely and did
rely, and I am permitted by Mr W.S. Lindsay then MP for Sunderland
to refer your Lordship to him as having been expressly given to
understand by the then Colonial Minister on the occasion of an
application made by him to the Colonial Office on my behalf, a
short time before my Departure from England in 1862, that the
best and soundest ground upon which I could hope for legal
preferment in the Colonial Service of the Crown was by local
distinction; the rule being that the Colonial Office did not
appoint from Home except in the absence of [an] apt man in the
Colony.

5. After practicing at Victoria and in Cariboo for more than a
year His Excellency Sir Arthur Kennedy then Governor of
Vancouver Island did me the honor to appoint me Acting Attorney
General for Vancouver Island and as such I continued from August
1864 until November 1866 when by the operation of "The British
Columbia Act 1866" the Colony of Vancouver Island was absorbed
in that of British Columbia, and the Executive of the former
Colony ceased to exist.

6. In November 1866 Mr Seymour then Governor of the United
Colony continued my appointment as nominal Attorney General of
Vancouver Island until January 1st 1867 and again retained me
as Solicitor General of British Columbia until April 1st 1867,
both of them temporary and exceptional offices; when, the
Legislative Session of 1867 having closed, my services were no
longer required.

7. Your Lordship is doubtless aware that by the Act of the
Imperial Parliament uniting the Colonies of British Columbia and
Vancouver Island no provision was made for the establishment of
an effective Supreme Court having jurisdiction throughout the
entire Colony; and pending the reconsititution of such Supreme
Court which I have ventured to hope was no less necessary than
imminent, and which I thought must lead to a vacancy on the Bench
or in the office of Attorney General I remained in the Colony,
with, I trust, not an unreasonable hope that my past services
would not be overlooked when occasion should arise.

8. This occasion though delayed for upwards of three years—arose
on the promotion of Mr Needham to the Chief Justiceship
of Trinidad and the consequent promotion of Mr Crease to the
Puisne Judgeship of British Columbia but the vacant office of
Attorney General of British Columbia was filled up by the
appointment of Mr Philippo from home.

9. The circumstances of the Colony are such as to make the
ordinary emoluments of the profession without the addition of
some certain permanent salary too precarious for me to endeavour
to reside in the Colony with reasonable comfort and without your
Lordship's assistance I have no alternative but to try the
fortunes of my profession elsewhere which at my age of 49 and
with the ties of a family is somewhat hazardous.

10. Your Lordship will observe that my appointment as Acting
Attorney General was never confirmed, and such being the case it
might be said that I do not hold the same strong claim to favor
from the Colonial Office on ceasing to hold office on the Union
of British Columbia with Vancouver Island which a Crown Officer
suddenly deprived of office for reasons of public policy is
usually presumed to have; but I trust that your Lordship will
consider that in principle and in fairness my position is no
less strong; considering the length of time during which I was
acting as Attorney General for Vancouver Island and the nature
of my services while I so acted.

11. On being appointed Acting Attorney General by Sir Arthur
Kennedy in 1864, it has been lately for the 1st time intimated
to me that Sir Arthur Kennedy in communicating with the Colonial
Office on the subject of my appointment, while speaking of me in
favorable terms; yet on account of local complications which he
considered then to exist recommended a permanent Attorney
General of Vancouver Island to be appointed from home; but this
fact was never at the time communicated to me, and the covering
letter containing my appointment as Acting Attorney General of
Vancouver Island stated that it was "pending the
approval or decision"
of the Secretary for the Colonies and without for a moment
imputing any blame to His Excellency Sir Arthur Kennedy in
acting with the reserve that he did; yet I may say for myself
that had it been communicated to me, that an Attorney General was
to be appointed from England, I should either have declined the
acting appointment or have made provision for leaving the
Colony on the arrival of my successor for the same reason that
now obliges me to do so.

12. No intimation having ever reached me as to the decision of
the Colonial Office with respect to my appointment
notwithstanding a direct application made by me, and addressed
to the Colonial Office under cover to the Governor soliciting a
confirmation in my office, and not supposing that any valid
reason could exist to prevent my formal appointment by warrant,
save the probability of a speedy Union of the two Colonies of
British Columbia and Vancouver Island I did my duty as an
Executive Officer in promoting that Union in the Common
interests, as I believed, of the Colonies themselves no less
than of the mother Country, and relying upon what was expressed,
but need hardly have been expressed, by our then Governor Sir
Arthur Kennedy, that disinterested
and candid conduct in that
matter though against our apparent interests would never be
overlooked in an officer of the Crown.

13. After the Union of the Colonies of British Columbia and
Vancouver Island I have every reason to think that Mr Seymour
regarded me as the leading member of my profession. I was still
retained, as far as he could do so, in the service of the Crown
as a nominal Attorney General and Solicitor General for a few
months—Subsequently as a Commissioner of Bankruptcy and
locum tenens
of Mr Needham during his absence in Cariboo, and always since
1866 as one of the 3 non-official and non representative members
of the Legislative Council of British Columbia.

14. In asking for favorable consideration at your Lordship's
hands I would beg to refer to the clear letter and spirit of the
published Rules and Regulations which we hold as favoring the
service in matters relating [to] the filling up of vacancies in
Colonial appointments and which point to local merit and local
services as the stepping stone to local preferment. My services
as Attorney General of Vancouver Island may speak for themselves
but I am sure I may ask for the favorable judgment of all who
have known me in the Colony to satisfy you that I discharged the
duties of my office with integrity and at least average ability
and sustained in public and in private the credit of the
honorable office I then held.

15. I do not desire to ask for your Lordship's more favorable
consideration of my case on the Ground of my having incurred
such pecuniary losses as I in common with many others have
sustained by reason of the decline of the Colony, except in so
far as they bear upon the matters above adverted to; but I may
say that I emigrated in 1862 with a wife and family, and
established myself substantially in the Colony at considerable
expense under a conviction that by doing so I was assisting
the solid colonization of the place, at the same time that by
professional distinction I might fairly hope to attain to the
honor and reward of my profession. On continuing year after
year without interruption to be acting Attorney General of
Vancouver Island; knowing that I did my duty to the satisfaction
of the executive, I was induced to make, and did make, such
investments as I should not otherwise have done had I known my
position to be as precarious as I now find it to have been,
and which investments can only be realized at the present time
by forced sale at very great loss while I am now obliged
owing to the decline of the Colony, at great personal
inconvenience, and loss, to return to England and obtain
Employment where best I can; and in addition to this I may I
trust reasonably lay claim to consideration on the fact that for
years past owing to circumstances to which I need hardly allude
the question of the modification of the Supreme Courts of
British Columbia, a matter known to be necessary and carrying
with it so far as I am concerned the question of my advancement
or comparative poverty being kept in abeyance for upwards of 3
years left me in a position of uncertainty involving no slight
amount of loss of time and means and much mental trial.

16. I can hardly help thinking that your Lordship will consider
the withholding of any confirmation by the Colonial Office of my
appointment as Attorney General of Vancouver Island as telling
rather in my favor than against it. I had fair reason to expect
that I should have been either promptly dismissed or confirmed
in my office. As a member of the Executive Council bound to act
an independent part in the interests of the Crown and the Colony
I felt that I filled an important and delicate position without
that security in the tenure of his office which an Attorney
General ought to have. In many ways my duties as Crown Officer
and Legislative Councillor have interfered with the emoluments
of my profession and after 2 1/2 years of faithful service I hope
your Lordship may feel that my case is one which deserves to
secure the favorable consideration of Her Majesty's Government.

17. I have the honor to enclose a letter from Sir Arthur
Kennedy which I have recently received referring to my conduct
and character during my tenure of office in Vancouver Island.

18. In conclusion I may say that I am mainly induced to select
Vancouver Island as a home on the score of its acknowledged
salubrity. At my age and with a wife and young children a
consideration for their health and welfare no less than for my
own makes it impossible for me to contemplate living in a
tropical country except under favorable circumstances. Should
your Lordship, however, have in your disposal some appointment
either judicial or as Attorney General in a healthy Colony, I
trust your Lordship will consider the facts adverted to above as
establishing a strong case in my favor.