Separate

I have long had under my consideration the various questions which
have arisen respecting the form of government which should be adopted in
British Columbia and Vancouver Island. And I have now to communicate to
you the decision at which I have arrived.

2. I should have much desired, if it had been possible, that these
two Colonies should have formed one government. I feel confident that
economy and efficiency would be promoted—that commerce would be
facilitated, that political capacity would be developed, that the
strength of the Colonies would be consolidated, and generally that their
well being would be greatly advanced by such an union, and I hope that
moderate and far seeing men in both communities will be convinced of
this, and will bear in mind the expediency of avoiding or removing all
that is likely to impede, and favoring all that is likely to facilitate
such a result. But I am aware that the prevailing feeling is at present
strongly adverse to such a measure and in deference to that feeling I am
prepared to take steps placing them under different Governors so soon as
proper financial arrangements are made for the permanent support of the
Government.

3. With regard to Vancouver Island I think that a permanent Act of
the Legislature should be passed securing to the principal Officers of
the Government Salaries at the Following rates, which the importance of
the Colony, and the prospects of its Revenues appear to render no more
than fitting:

Governor
£3,000

Chief Justice
800
(to be £1,200 when a Lawyer is appointed)

Colonial Secretary
600

Attorney General
300
with practice

Treasurer
600

Surveyor General
500

4. The initiation of all money votes should also, be secured to the
Government.

5. When this is done I am prepared to hold the Crown Revenue of
Vancouver Island at the disposal of the Legislature of that Colony
retaining only such temporary power over the Land as will enable Her
Majesty's Government to close its transactions with the Hudson's Bay
Company. When this is effected I shall be ready to transfer the
management of the Revenue to the Colonial Legislature.

6. With regard to British Columbia, adverting to the magnitude of
the Colonial interests, and to the steady progression of the local
Revenue, I should wish you at once to proclaim a permanent Law enabling
Her Majesty to allot Salaries to the Government Officers of British
Columbia at the following rates

Governor, with a suitable residence
3,000

Chief Justice
1,200

Colonial Secretary
800

Attorney General
500
with practice

Treasurer
750

Commissioner of Lands and Surveyor General
8

Collector of Customs
650

Chief Inspector of Police
500

Registrar of Deeds
500

7. It will then follow to give effect to the enclosed Order in
Council which Her Majesty has been pleased to issue in order to prepare
the way for giving the inhabitants of the Colony a due influence in its
Government. I should have wished to establish there the same
representative Institutions which already exist in Vancouver Island; and
it is not without reluctance that I have come to the conclusion that
this is at present impossible.

8. It is however plain that the fixed population of British
Columbia is not yet large enough to form a sufficient and sound basis of
Representation, while the migratory element far exceeds the fixed, and
the Indian far out numbers both together.

9. Gold is the only produce of the Colony, extracted in a great
measure by an annual influx of Foreigners—Of Landed proprietors there
are next to none—Of tradesmen not very many, and these are occupied in
their own pursuits at a distance from the centre of Government and from
each other. Under these circumstances I see no mode of establishing a
purely representative Legislature which would not be open to one of two
objections. Either it must place the Government of the Colony under the
exclusive control of a small circle of persons naturally occupied with
their own local, personal or class interests, or it must confide a large
amount of political power to immigrant, or rather transient Foreigners,
who have no permanent interest in the prosperity of the Colony.

10. For these reasons I think it necessary that the government
should retain for the present a preponderating influence in the
Legislature. From the best information I can obtain I am disposed to
think it most advisable that about one third of the Council should
consist of the Colonial Secretary and other Officers who generally
compose the Executive Council—about one third of Magistrates from
different parts of the Colony, and about one third of persons elected by
the residents of different Electoral Districts. But here I am met by
the difficulty that these residents are not only few and scattered, but
(like the foreign gold diggers) migratory and unsettled, and that any
definition of Electoral districts now made might in the lapse of a few
months become wholly inapplicable to the state of the Colony. It would
therefore be trifling to attempt such a definition, nor am I disposed to
rely on any untried contrivances which might be suggested for supplying
its place—contrivances which depend for their success on a variety of
circumstances, which, with my present information, I cannot safely
assume to exist.

11. I have therefore thought it most advisable to have recourse in
British Columbia to the tried machinery of a Legislative Council, with
the intention however that the appointments to that Council, which by
the enclosed Order you are authorised to make, shall be made if not in
exact accordance with the outline which I have traced, yet at any rate
with the object of securing that at least one third of the Councillors
shall be persons recognized by the residents in the Colony, as
representing their feelings and interests. By what exact process this
quasi-representation shall be accomplished, whether by ascertaining
informally the sense of the residents in each locality, or by bringing
the question before  Public Meetings, or (as is done in Ceylon)
by accepting the nominee of any Corporate Body or Society, I leave you to
determine. I also leave it you to determine the period for which
(subject to Her Majesty's pleasure, which involves a practical
power of dissolution) the Councillors should be appointed. What
I desire is this; that a system of virtual though imperfect
representation shall be at once introduced which shall enable Her
Majesty's Government to ascertain with some certainty, the character,
wants, and disposition of the community with a view to the more formal
and complete Establishment of a Representative System as circumstances
shall admit of it.

I shall hold the proceeds of the Crown Lands at the disposal of the
Legislative Council, who will also be at liberty to pass laws for the
regulation and management of that source of Revenue subject of course
to disallowance in this Country and subject also to the qualification
which I have mentioned as indispensable in Vancouver Island, viz. that
the Crown must retain such legal powers over the Lands as are necessary
for disposing of all questions (if any) which remain to be settled with
the Hudson's Bay Company—questions which without such uncontrolled power
might still be productive of embarrassment.

With these explanations I have to instruct you first to proclaim a
law securing to Her Majesty the right to allot the above Salaries to the
Officials of British Columbia, and, having done so, to give publicity to
the enclosed Order in Council and to convene as soon as possible the
proposed Legislature.