No. 70

Adverting to your despatch No 34 of the 10th July
last, relative to the withdrawal of the Royal Engineers
from British Columbia and to my reply thereto of the 14
September No 56, relative to arrangements to be made for carrying on the civil duties heretofore conducted by Colonel
Moody as Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, and certain
of the Officers and men under his command, I have now the
honor to report to your Grace that I have retained in the
service of the Colony, certain of the discharged Sappers
who were employed in Colonel Moody's Office, and who are
acquainted with the various matters of detail passing
through it from the first. Fearing however to conflict
with any arrangements your Grace might make, I have refrained
from even provisionally appointing any professional Head
to the Department, but have merely placed the Department and
the Stores belonging to it under the temporary charge and
supervision of Mr Brew the Acting Treasurer. To a certain
extent therefore the operations of the Department are brought
to a stand still, but as the winter season is now fast
approaching, it is the period when the least inconvenience
will be experienced therefrom. As I had recommended Captain
Luard to your Grace as Colonel Moody's successor, I considered
it would be to the interest of the public service if his
departure from the Colony were deferred until I could hear
from your Grace. Such a course would prevent any check taking
place in the operations of the Department, and should your
Grace appoint Captain Luard, would save the cost of his return
journey; while on the other hand, should your Grace not
appoint him, it would cause no additional expense to the
public, but would simply delay Captain Luard's departure from
the Colony for a month or so,
an arrangement which I venture to think would not have been
antagonistic to the orders of the War Department, which
contemplated the withdrawal of the Detachment at the end
of the year. I consequently represented these particulars
to Colonel Moody and requested him, so, provisionally, to
leave Captain Luard behind, but I regret to say Colonel Moody
has acquainted me that he does not feel himself justified to
permit Captain Luard to defer his departure.