No. 81

I have the honor to forward herewith to Your Grace the
Annual Blue Book for the Colony of British Columbia for the
year 1860, prepared in as complete a form as the present state
of the Colony will admit.

2. I regret that the transmission of this Book should have
been delayed so long after the period prescribed, but I trust
that the circumstance of this Book being the first compiled,
and the difficulty of obtaining the requisite information from
the different Officers, who for the most part had no previous
acquaintance with the nature of the Return, may be admitted
both to excuse the delay and to account for any imperfections
which may be found to exist.

3. I believe it would be superfluous for me upon this
occasion to enter into any detailed account of the progress,
settlement, or comparative condition of the Colony, for I have
heretofore from time to time in my various dispatches kept Her
Majesty's Government fully informed upon all those matters, and
those despatches have already been laid before both Houses of
Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.