No. 40

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 19th
March enclosing remarks by Chief Justice Needham and the Attorney
General upon the Draft Ordinance which was transmitted to you in my
Despatch of the 13th November.

That Ordinance which was settled by the Law Officers of the
Crown, was sent out to guide and assist the Colonial Legislature in
carrying out a measure which, with reference to the terms of the
British Columbia Act 1866 and the existing interest in the Colony,
appeared to me upon a careful consideration of the whole subject, to
be best calculated to meet the difficulties of the case.

A Draft Law framed in England to meet an anomalous state of
things existing in a colony very peculiarly constituted, must of
course require alterations and additions in matters of detail, but I
had hoped that by the cordial cooperation of the Judges and Attorney
General imperfections of that class would substantially have been
removed by the introduction of Clauses into the Ordinance before or
during its progress through the Legislature. I cannot help observing
that many of the difficulties and objections now raised by the
Attorney General could readily have been so met.

The fact of the Union of British Columbia with Vancouver Island,
has not made the working of the two Supreme Courts more difficult,
but, on the contrary, by bringing both courts under the jurisdiction
of a Single Legislature, has given facilities for making the
operation of those Courts more harmonious and useful.

I still entertain a strong hope that when the Ordinance is sent
over for Her Majesty's sanction, I shall find that steps have been
taken to remedy all substantial difficulties pointed out by the
Attorney General and Judges, some of which had not escaped my
attention, but which I am assured may to a great extent be obviated
by careful Legislation. Though I do not find in the papers before me
any reason to doubt that the principle of the Draft Ordinance is
capable of being worked with perfect ease by intelligent officers
whose desire is that public affairs shall be properly conducted, yet
you must observe from the tenor of my Despatches that it is by no
means my desire to preclude the Government and Legislature from
adopting any other mode of dealing with the existing anomalies,
which, without injustice to existing officers, seems to them to
promise more satisfactory results.