Murdoch to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

We have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th Instant, enclosing two letters from the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company proposing an alteration in the provision to be made for the support of a Clergyman in Van Couvers Island.

2. We learn from this letter that the provision heretofore 
intended to be made for a Clergyman was the reservation of a
certain portion of the Wilderness land, and it is now proposed
to substitute for this a money payment amounting in all to £400
a year, with a moderate residence and small glebe. We can have
no hesitation in recommending the approval of this allocation.
The remuneration of the Ministers of Religion by grants of Land
has been very commonly adopted in New Countries, but it has, we
believe, universally failed—or only succeeded partially by
diverting the Clergyman from his proper duties to the pursuit of
Farming or land jobbing occupations.