No. 27, Financial

I have had the honor of receiving Your Grace's Despatch of
the 28th of October 1859, No 33, in reply to my Despatch of

the 23rd of August, No 207, reporting upon the State of
British Columbia.

2. I regret to learn that there is no prospect of any
assistance being afforded to the Colony by the Mother Country,
towards raising a loan for the immediate prosecution of the
urgently required work of opening Roads, and by so doing,
hastening the settlement of the Country and securing its
prosperity, but Your Grace may rest assured that no effort
shall be wanting on my part to effect that desirable

object
to the best of my ability, with the means at my command. The
want of available funds will retard the development of the
Country, but nevertheless my unceasing solicitude will be to
meet, and if possible to overcome, the difficulties which
present themselves on every side.

3. I notice that Your Grace remarks upon the little progress
that has been made in opening the communications with the interior,
and that from the large expenditure incurred it was supposed that
a

route would have been opened which would have rendered the
upper Country more accessible.

4. I have not failed in former Despatches to represent the
great natural difficulties which check the development of the
Colony, and that they can only be overcome by much labour, at
great expense, and in course of time; and in proportion as we
have the means so can the Country be opened out, and increase
in prosperity. The Country through which the communications
have to be made, is perhaps the most rugged

and impracticable
in the world, and the cost of the work commensurably great.
However, notwithstanding the natural obstacles presented by the
line of road, we have succeeded through the agency of Civil
labour, in opening Pack trails through the Cascade range of
mountains, both from Yale and Douglas, and by these routes
supplies have been thrown into the interior. Other pack trails
are in course of construction, and I have never ceased by every
means at my command to endeavour to prosecute the indispensable
work of opening the communications; and

although my hands are
cramped for want of means, and although the task is one replete
with difficulties, I do not despair of being able in time to
attain the consummation so much desired.

5. The great object which the Government has now in view,
and which the wants of the Country imperatively demand, is the
immediate prosecution of the improvement of its commercial
thoroughfares by the conversion, whenever practicable, of the
pack trails into waggon roads. On the Harrison
Lillooet road, which enters the mountains

at Douglas and emerges at Cayoosh, a
distance of 110 Miles, it is estimated that a reduction of Three
Hundred Dollars a ton, may by this means be effected, making a
clear gain, to that extent, on all goods carried to the upper
Country. With a view of further illustrating that point I will
here exhibit the distances from Fort Victoria to Alexandria, and the
enormous cost for transport on each Section of that Road:

Victoria to Douglas...166 Miles, Conveyance per Steamer

- Cost per ton.........................£25.

Douglas to Cayoosh...100 Miles, Land Transport Chiefly

- Cost per ton........................£360.

Cayoosh to Alexandria..210 Miles, Land Transport Entirely

- Cost per ton........................£440.

It is evident that the wealth of the Country, however great,
cannot support so expensive a system of transport. The charge
for packing attests at once the want of competition, and the
difficult nature of the Road, and no other means is open to the
Government but to induce competition by improving the communications,
so that Waggons may be substituted for pack Trains.

6. Your Grace will therefore I doubt not readily appreciate
the urgent necessity which exists for some energetic action to
dissipate the enormous cost of transport, and this can only be
attained by at

once undertaking the improvement in the roads.
I was directed by the Despatches of Sir Edward Lytton, Nos 30
and 31 of the 16th of October 1858, to rely entirely upon
Colonel Moody and the Royal Engineers under his Command, for the
great work of opening the communications of the Country. Experience
has proved that the Force in question is utterly unable to grapple
with the great difficulties with which it has had to contend, or
to make any perceptible impression upon the rugged mountain passes
which lead into the interior. Knowing therefore that if I relied
alone upon the Royal

Engineers the day would be far distant when
this much desired end could be attained, I have felt it imperative
on me not to delay longer in the employment of civil labour, and
failing assistance from Her Majesty's Government, I have resorted
to the expedient of levying a Tax of £1 Sterling upon all pack
animals leaving Douglas and Yale, in order to raise the funds
necessary for the Expenditure required.

7. I enclose to Your Grace herewith, a copy of the Proclamation
imposing the Tax. The proceeds of the Tax will be devoted wholly
to the improvement

of the roads, and although for the present
increasing the cost of food by about one cent and a half per pound, will
I feel sure, in the course of but a few months be the means whereby a
wholesale reduction will be effected in the transit expenses.

For the moment the Tax is unpopular in the Colony—as indeed
are all Taxes everywhere—but the necessity is urgent, and I feel
confident that in a short time the benefits arising from the Tax
will be so apparent, and will come so truly home to those

upon
whom it at present falls, that the measure will hereafter be as
much extolled as it is now deprecated.