Hamilton to Elliot (Assistant Under-Secretary)

Having laid before my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty your
Letter of the 18th Instant with its enclosure on the subject of a
Survey of the Coast and Harbours and Navigable Rivers of Vancouvers
Island, I am commanded by their Lordships to acquaint you for the
information of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, that my Lords consider a
good Chart of the Georgian Strait would be a benefit to general
Navigation as well as to the growing Trade along the Coast of America;
but in comparison with the importance 
of many other Places that ought to
be surveyed, its turn for examination would be very remote.

When considered however with respect to the advantage it would
offer to the new Colony, its importance would be great and immediate,
and especially as the means of developing the rich Coal Fields on that
side of Vancouver's Island. If Her Majestys Government should view it
in this light, a special grant must be devoted to that purpose as the
whole of the Surveying funds are already appropriated, and my Lords
request to be informed, if it be more pressing than any other Colonial
Survey.