No. 67, Separate

1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No 23 dated 1st June 1866, transmitting copy of a correspondence between the Colonial Office, Sir Edmund Head, and Governor Seymour respecting the introduction of spirituous liquors among the Indians on the Peace River and in the Athabasca District, and requesting me to suggest any measures that might be properly taken with the view of checking this evil.

2. While I concur with Governor Seymour that whiskey smuggling is
extensively carried on along the whole coast of British Columbia and
Vancouver Island, I differ from him in thinking that the occasional
visit of a ship of war would put an end to it. The evil lies in the
want of equal and concurrent jurisdiction between the Colonies, and,
as I will presently show, the refusal of the Legislative Assembly of
Vancouver Island to pass any sufficient law for its repression.

3. I also think Governor Seymour is entirely mistaken in supposing
 that spirits consumed on the Peace River and Athabasca District are 
 conveyed from the North West coast of British Columbia by way of
Sticken River to those Districts.

4. If any communication exists from the head waters of the Sticken
 River, or even from the head waters of the Skena or Naas Rivers, by
which trade could be carried on, it must have been very recently
discovered.

5. I have made inquiries, but I can find no person in this colony
who has any knowledge of such a route.

6. To convey goods by means of these Rivers to the Peace River and
Athabasca Districts, would involve their transport over a large tract 
of mountainous and impracticable country, and over the main range of
the Rocky Mountains, a proceeding that would be found a commercial if
not a practical impossibility.

7. It is to be remembered that the spirits obtained by the Indians
in the before mentioned Districts are supplied by white traders.

8. There are three routes by which those Districts can be reached
that do not present the almost insuperable difficulties attending the
presumed route from the North West Coast of British Columbia, and by
one of those, if not by all, it seems to me unquestionable that the
traders travel.

9. One route is by the Fraser River to Stuart's Lake, thence by the
 Hudson Bay Company's trail to Fort McLeod and up the Peace River
which will lead directly to the Beaver Indian Country. Another from
Cariboo across the Rocky Mountains by Tete Jaune Cache by which the
Athabasca River can be reached. The third (and probably the one most
 used by whiskey dealers) by the Columbia River and Big Bend, thence
 by the Athabasca Pass to the Athabasca River.

10. These are all known routes travelled by the Hudson's Bay Company
and by the native population. The route suggested by Governor
Seymour is I believe unknown and impracticable.

11. The spirits introduced are probably of the vilest and most
destructive kind, manufactured on the spot from pure alcohol, which is
used in order to reduce the bulk in transport to a minimum.

12. On the coast the alcohol is generally diluted with
salt water, and flavoured to suit the Indian taste either as
brandy, rum or whiskey, camphine, creosote, and even sulphuric acid
being (I am credibly informed) used to give strength and flavour.

13. Having I trust satisfactorily disposed of this part of a large
question, I think the present a convenient opportunity for bringing
the whiskey selling to Indians generally, under your notice, and I
cannot avoid drawing your attention to a fact (which will be shown in
the sequel) that while the Agents of the Hudson's Bay Company at the
Peace River and Athabasca District very properly denounce the sale of 
intoxicating liquors to Indians as likely to "debauch their people"
and "make their establishments the scene of many irregularities," the
employés of the Company in this Colony not only oppose and obstruct
the passing of
any law for its repression, but have been the active agents
for passing a Bill through the Legislative Assembly to
legalize the unrestricted sale of liquor to Indians, and
presented a Petition to the Legislative Council praying for the same
(herewith).

14. I am therefore the more gratified to find the following passage
in the letter Sir Edmund Head has addressed to you dated Hudson Bay
House April 17th 1866. "It is the earnest wish of the Hudsons Bay
Company to discourage in any way and
everywhere the sale of liquor to Indians and they never adopt it
except in cases where it is forced upon them by competition from
other quarters." This is no more than would be expected from a man
of Sir Edmund Head's high character and vast experience, and if he
would instruct the Hudson's Bay Company's employés in
this Colony to adopt his humane and statesmanlike views, the
evil complained of would soon be put an end to.

15. There exists a law
in British Columbia (without which the country would be uninhabitable
for white men) prohibiting the sale of liquor to Indians, and if the
Hudson's Bay Company would aid, instead of opposing me, to have a
like law adopted in Vancouver Island they would find it I think sound
commercial as well as a humane policy.

16. Let this Government be clothed with the reasonable powers I ask
in the Bill, herewith, and I will undertake to stop the plague which
Sir Edmund Head has so opportunely brought under your notice.

17. I attach such grave importance to this matter that I deem it
necessary to explain fully the difficulties I have had to encounter
and the attempts I have made to suppress this frightful and expensive
evil.

18. In my opening speech to the Legislature of this Colony on the
28th November 1865 I addressed them as follows—

I would earnestly
bespeak the attention of the Legislature to the insufficiency of the
law for the prevention of the sale of intoxicating liquors to the
native tribes, by which they are demoralized and decimated. This
iniquitous traffic is carried on by a worthless and degraded class of
men the cost of whose repeated convictions and maintenance in prison
arising from inadequate punishment falls heavily on the public
funds. Moving appeals have been made to me by Ministers of every
denomination, and by the chiefs of several Indian tribes to put an
end to a crime which must eventually recoil upon the legitimate
commerce of the Colony, and society at large. Deplorable murders of
Indians inter se, as well as the murder of white men by Indians are
of frequent occurrence and notoriously resulting from the illegal
sale of liquor on the coast of this and the neighbouring Colony. I
can see no difficulty in suppressing this unholy traffic if the
existing faulty and insufficient law be amended, and with that object
I have directed a Bill to be preapred and laid before you.

19. I accordingly had the Bill (herewith) prepared and introduced.
It was carefully considered and passed the
Legislative Council.

20. In due course it was sent to the Legislative Assembly where it
was thrown out and the Bill (herewith)
legalizing the sale of liquor to Indians substituted. This
latter Bill, the Council refused to pass, and the defective and
insufficient Act of 1860 (herewith) which I sought to have amended
still remains in force.

21. I cannot too strongly condemn the action of the Legislative
Assembly in this matter. Such an Act as that proposed by them, if
passed into Law, could not fail to produce bloodshed and constant
collisions between Her Majesty's Naval Forces and the Indians.

22. The officers of the Hudsons Bay Company were I regret to say
among the most prominent supporters of the Assembly Bill for
legalizing the sale of liquor to Indians and presented a Petition to
the Legislative Council, of which I enclose a copy, in its favour.

23. I may here remark that there is nothing surprising in their
obtaining 191 signatures to such a Petition in a town like Victoria
where there are unfortunately no less that 85
licensed public houses for the retail of drink and some 20
additional wholesale or gallon houses.

24. The Petition from the Bishop of Columbia and 123 others against
the Bill, which I also enclose, speaks for itself.

25. I thought it a fitting opportunity while this mischievous
measure was under consideration of the Legislative Council to lay a
copy of your Despatch on the subject (No 67 dated 20th December
1864) before the Legislature.

26. You will observe from the accompanying papers that I have met
with opposition and discouragement in amending the law or enforcing
that which exists, from quarters where I had a right to expect aid
and assistance. The (now) ex-Chief Justice you will observe
denounces the
existing law from the Bench as a "prohibitory and highly penal
Statute," "invading the common rights of Her Majesty's subjects and
is in fact repugnant to natural justice!" With such an example
before him it is not surprising that the Police Magistrate of
Victoria stated to the public, that "the Bench regretted that a law
opening the Indian liquor traffic to all licensed dealers was not in
force!"

27. You will gather from what I have stated that I am comparatively
powerless to repress this crying evil. The law is insufficient, and
those who are alone empowered to amend it together with an
influential class of their constituents, liquor sellers, and fur
dealers, have too large a pecuniary interest in its continuance to
render it probable that they will arm the Executive Government with
any sufficient power to put an end to it.

28. I do not hesitate to assert that no
earnest attempt has ever been made in this Colony to put down
whiskey selling to Indians—hence it is idle to say that
repressive measures have failed. I have shown that no
sufficient powers to attain that object ever existed, and that the
feeble law which exists has been denounced by high authority as
"invading the rights of Her Majesty's subjects and is repugnant to
natural justice."

29. I have lately made the tour of this Island and held personal
communication with almost every tribe. I found them peaceable and
well disposed towards white men, especially to "King George (English)
men." They almost all prayed for some Resident white man empowered
by the Government to prevent whiskey selling.

30. I cannot doubt that almost all the murders that have occurred
had their origin in this traffic. Its suppression is a matter of
Imperial necessity as much or more than Colonial interest, and ought
to be insisted on by Her Majesty's Government.

31. I have I fear written lengthily on a subject on which I confess
I feel strongly, because I think humanity, morality and the good name
of England and the British Government are involved.

32. I enclose copies of the Debates in the Legislative Assembly on
the Indian Liquor Bill, and other extracts expressive of individual
or public opinion on the same subject for your persual.